Cricket: Eyes out for a man to lead

John R Reid would be amazed if John Wright took the Black Caps job. Photo / Getty Images

Curiosity remains contagious over who is a) best suited or b) likely to get the Black Caps coaching job as the team's performances fluctuated in the UAE over the past week.

The Herald on Sunday sought the views of a trio who, over the past 60 years, have either played for, captained, coached or selected the New Zealand team.

First let's go to John R Reid, who immediately invokes parallels with Daniel Vettori, albeit from the amateur international era of the late 1950s and early 1960s, as the overseer of most core team functions. What does he make of the current politicking to appoint the successor to Andy Moles?

"Vettori's doing a good job. He's got more pressure than I had in terms of exposure but then he is a professionally paid player. But I think he's in trouble because he's got too much to do. I'm with Martin Crowe - you don't need a coach, provided you've got a good captain, vice-captain and manager who know what they're doing."

Last week, Crowe put forward the idea that players need regular one-on-one mentoring before coming into the test environment. Reid agrees.

"I've been watching these guys make the same mistakes for 10 years. For me, there's only two players who get back and across to play fast bowling. That's Brendon McCullum and Ross Taylor. The rest put their front foot down the track and just about get their heads knocked off. I'd tell them don't hang your bat out like the laundry."

What also earns Reid's ire is seeing the number of support staff balloon over the years.

"Sometimes these days they have at least a dozen people with the team. I mean you've got to be bloody joking. I don't mind a doctor, a physio, a

technical coach and a dogsbody for collecting players and gear etc, but as for the rest ..."

As the team coach in the early 1990s who oversaw the 1992 World Cup success, Warren Lees says: "When I had the team, most of the players were young, open-eyed with gaping mouths and thrilled to be there. They all needed someone to lean on at times but weren't demanding. There was no IPL and no egos."

Lees is concerned that this week's one-day series win over Pakistan will invoke more laissez-faire thinking from proponents of player power.

"I'm not sure what role Mark Greatbatch played as selector up there but I'm hoping the players don't say 'Ah ha, we were right'."

Lees says the team needs someone in charge but the success of that appointment comes down to subtleties in the way talent is nurtured.