Player power in the Black Caps could rise to new heights if the players successfully lobby for a manager, rather than a coach, to replace Andy Moles.

As Andrew Alderson's story (see p86) outlines, this is a move far away from the traditional selectors-coach-captain axis. If it comes off, it will not only usher in a new era for New Zealand cricket, it will confirm for many the absolute political power of one Daniel Vettori.

Some were quick to jeer when the Black Caps lost so demonstrably to Pakistan without a coach in the first one-dayer in Abu Dhabi; before they clearly won the second.

The two results therefore seem to prove absolutely nothing when it comes to whether an international cricket team needs a coach on board or not.

Shane Warne tried to demonstrate that international cricketers do not need a coach to teach them how to play with his joke that the only coach the Australians needed was the one they rode to the stadium.

Warne was by some distance the best bowler these eyes have ever seen but he could have used a coach in matters of life, tactics and subtlety - so he didn't appear quite so much to have the IQ of a goldfish.

His point is debatable. Players may not need a coach when everything is going well - as it did for so long for the Australians - but it can be a different story in other circumstances.

Many are interpreting what we are seeing with the Black Caps as a political coup by Vettori, now by far the most powerful individual cricketer in our history.

The move towards a manager - by definition someone less able to influence on-field matters - would cement further the role of Vettori and of senior players ahead of administrators.

It's a thorny issue for New Zealand Cricket. How far do they go down the Vettori road without ceding absolute power?

There are hooks for Vettori in all this - and there was more than a hint of them after that first loss to Pakistan. Vettori would have felt he had fashioned a very sharp stick for himself to sit on after his part in Moles' removal.

That pressure will continue to be piled on him while he is selecting the side, captaining it, bowling and rescuing the batting, as he so often does. After his promotion to selector, the Moles move and demotion of Brendon McCullum, he is battling a public perception that the Black Caps are his team; that he has total control.

That's not to say Vettori was wrong in his Moles manoeuvres. It's just that he has potentially made himself a bed of nails. If you deep-six the coach you thought wasn't doing the business, then the natural inclination is to expect progress in results. If not, you cop it.