Cricket: Coach favours all hands to pump

Mark Greatbatch is uncomfortable with being described as head coach of the Black Caps. Photo / Getty Images

When Mark Greatbatch was this month unveiled as the new man to join the coaching staff, it was a confusing time in New Zealand cricket.

Whether by accident or design, the implication was a head coach/team director, call him what you will, was being lined up.

But Greatbatch has a brief to work with the batsmen. If he's asked a question as "head coach" he shifts uncomfortably. It's not his idea of how things should work.

"I don't see myself as a head coach," the former test left-hander said.

"I'm coming into a structure that's already in place.

"There's no hierarchy, no one has a higher standing than anyone else."

On the park, captain Dan Vettori is the boss. No arguments, and that's the way it should be.

Off it, there are people with various responsibilities.

In Greatbatch's case, he is a national selector - and does most of the public comment around panel decisions - but will focus on coaching the batsmen, just as Shane Jurgensen works with the bowlers and former Auckland coach Mark O'Donnell oversees the fielding.

Greatbatch has a holistic view of the New Zealand team. He points out that the size of the country means it should be all hands to the pump and he's determined to get the key figures involved as New Zealand look to move ahead in the coming year.

His international career as a batsmen who bristled with intent and enthusiasm encompassed eight years from his test debut in February 1988, when he hit 107 not out against England at Eden Park.

His test average, 30.62, could have been higher; his ODI career, 84 games, average 28.28 included two hundreds in England within three days and is best remembered for his belligerence at the top of the order during New Zealand's memorable World Cup run in 1992.

In Greatbatch's day, the coach was a different creature to now. There were Bob Cunis and Warren Lees, both men who adopted a back-seat philosophy, as opposed to any notion of being the boss.

In those days, Greatbatch recalled, the players coached and supported each other.

"My coach back then was 'Crowy' [Martin Crowe] and I was his. We trained together. Then there was Wrighty, all the other guys," he said.

"You talked to each other in the nets - 'am I lining it up right', things like that.

"The head coach was almost in the background, but you talked strategy and a bit of technique with them. Then there was the period when you had the head coach who ran everything."

Greatbatch wonders if things have almost gone full circle, from John Bracewell's hands-on approach through much of this decade.

Now a degree of self-sufficiency is being reintroduced. Greatbatch liked what he saw when he stepped in to help out in the United Arab Emirates late last year after Andy Moles departed.

"You do need guidance sometimes, but you're encouraged to talk about your own game to other people, and I think we might have gone away from that, from learning about each other's game."

He maintains he had no "Eureka!" moment after Moles left, when he suddenly wanted the job.

Rather, the appeal of working as a coach grew on him.

About the time of his appointment, much was made of his time at Warwickshire, where he parted on poor terms after two-and-a-half years there in the middle of this decade.

He doesn't want to revisit that period but says he learned two important things: to listen and trust.

"It was a good experience but obviously there were some bad things in it. I learned to listen more, but I didn't quite feel as if I had the full trust, whereas in this environment there are good people involved."

The lack of honesty from some there disappointed him but he's moved on, taken the good bits and is clearly enjoying the current environment.

So what about the skipper? Vettori, being a selector and the team's best player, wields huge influence, but Greatbatch disputes any idea that he is a martinet.

"He's firm when he needs to be, he thinks and communicates well. It's very simple and straight to the point.

"He's a pretty measured guy, and pretty relaxed. The way he approaches things is great and he's always looking for input."

Greatbatch has a theory on leadership: "I reckon about 80 per cent of it is about leading from the front, and Dan's a doer."

Greatbatch has the job until after the World Cup in the subcontinent in February-March next year.

"That sits well. We'll see how it goes. I want to enjoy it, and want to help New Zealand win games."