David Leggat: The captain's chance to stamp his mark

Daniel Vettori. Photo / Otago Daily Times

It has been a busy few weeks of welcomes and farewells round the New Zealand cricket team.

A new coach, rejigged selection panel, support staff ditched, others hired but overall presenting a slimmed-down look.

So where does all this upheaval leave captain Daniel Vettori?

It could be this is the ideal time for Vettori to step forward and take a stronger hand on what goes on within the dressing room, as well as running the show on the park.

Since Glenn Turner coached New Zealand to perhaps their finest of all series victories - 2-1 over Australia, in Australia in 1985-86 - national teams have been through a host of coaching changes.

New Zealand have had 12 coaches in 23 years, including John F. Reid and Ashley Ross doing short term fill-in jobs in 1985 and 2003 respectively. The latest, Englishman Andy Moles, moved into the job a couple of weeks ago.

After Turner came Gren Alabaster, Bob Cunis, Warren Lees, Geoff Howarth, Reid, Turner again, Steve Rixon, David Trist, Dennis Aberhart, Ross and John Bracewell.

Most were men with distinctive personalities, and had their own way of doing things. Some were hands-on, dominant figures, Rixon and Bracewell springing to mind. Others, like Alabaster, Cunis and Aberhart preferred the players to be front of house.

Moles sits in the latter group, from the perspective that he has frequently said the players should be, in his words, "on the back page", not the coach.

His philosophy is that he will have plenty to say in the leadup to tests but once the first morning arrives, the captain should be the voice the players hear most often.

If Vettori casts his mind back to the latter part of the Trist reign and through the Aberhart years early in this decade, he'll recall Stephen Fleming demanding a greater say in operations. By that stage he felt confident in his abilities, both as the team's leading batsman but also as a captain growing into the job and backing his judgments.

During this period, New Zealand went to Australia and drew all three tests - and might have won two - against a formidable Australian side, then recorded their first win in the West Indies. It was a time of considerable success when New Zealand's reputation was of a side difficult to beat.

Players like Nathan Astle, Chris Cairns, Adam Parore, Dion Nash, Vettori, Mark Richardson and Craig McMillan formed a tough-minded unit, and their captain was emphatically calling the shots.