Cricket: CD CEO taking stock of allround returns after year in office

CD Stags coach Heinrich Malan with Hawke's Bay Toyota employee Hayden Herrington after striking new sponsorship recently. Photo/supplied

A shade more than a year in his job, Central Districts Cricket chief executive Pete de Wet is taking stock of a summer of progress.

De Wet says he deliberately paced himself to take things in his stride before drawing any conclusions on a major association that offers a challenge in itself purely due to its fragmented nature.

"I didn't rush into anything. I took at least six months to get around to the districts to understand all the challenges they face in their own environments," says the South African-born administrator.

De Wet rates the flagship Central Districts Stags men's team campaign as a fittingly professional one and one where coach Heinrich Malan and his troops were successful as the losing finalists in the Georgie Pie Super Smash Twenty20 competition as well as bowing out in the semifinals of the one-day Ford Trophy competition.

The William Young-captained side came up shy on the four-day Plunket Shield campaign.

"If a couple of results had gone our way we probably would have been in the hunt for the shield as well," he says, feeling the season in its entirety gave everyone what they were about.

De Wet says he's had a discussion with the CD board with the future in mind and aligned their staff accordingly.

"At times they had lost their focus on what their day-to-day jobs were and there were a lot of cross functions and so we just took some time to look at the structures."

Part of that alignment included bringing in the CD Hinds women and the other age-group representative roles under the umbrella of the Stags' template.

De Wet says former CD director of cricket Craig Ross had decided to move across the floor to the minor association of Hawke's Bay Cricket where he will continue to liaise with them in helping pave a pathway for aspiring cricketers to major association honours.

High performance and talent identifying structures have been placed in their environment as well as a more formal process in how coaches will be appointed from now on.

That saw Jamie Watkins, of New Plymouth, assume the mantle of Hinds coach.

Hinds player Mikaela Greig is the CD U21 women's coach with fellow player Anlo van Deventer is her assistant and team manager.

Debu Banik is the CD U19 men's mentor and Dilan Raj the CD U17 men's coach.

De Wet says CD will continue to work very closely with its districts aligning itself from the Stags, Hinds and age-group perspective to ensure the development structures are in place.

From a financial view, he says an audit is under way with a forecast of a surplus compared with a small deficit the previous summer. The exact figures will be announced at its annual meeting on November 12.

"A really big focus for me was trying to get that right so everyone within the association worked really hard to making sure it was in line with our projected returns so it's pleasing that we managed to get that right."

CD Cricket also have retained their major sponsorship deals and secured a couple of new ones, including Hawke's Bay Toyota as a vehicle sponsor.

"It just feels right tfo us to be supported by a company that is based where we're based so we're really excited about it and to have that relationship," says De Wet.

He says the decision to relocate temporarily from the McLean Park offices to the first-floor buildings along 20-22 Munro St was tough on but it made sense as they require more space.

"We've made a commitment to the [Napier City] Council that we'll move back to McLean Park once Hawke's Bay Rugby move out to Park Island," he says, not expecting that to happen before at least two years.

The McLean Park offices will undergo refurbishment before CD return.