Cricket: Craig McMillan is our next test skipper, says Reid

New Zealand legend John R. Reid believes it is not too late for troubled batsman Craig McMillan to turn his career around - and even make a push for Black Caps captaincy.

McMillan hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons in the recently finished test series in Australia, engaging Adam Gilchrist in a discussion over cricket's ethics in the first test before being dropped for the second test.

But Reid, president of New Zealand Cricket, believes it can be a minor blip on a healthy career so long as McMillan concentrates on what he does best - hitting the ball. Reid won't go into specifics, but as cricket's toughest match referee when he was on the circuit and a stickler for the game's gentlemanly tradition, you can draw a conclusion that he is no fan of sledging. "In my book I classed him as New Zealand's next test captain," Reid told Herald on Sunday.

Reid was manager of the New Zealand under-19 team which toured England.

That team included Jacob Oram, Daniel Vettori and Matthew Bell. Craig McMillan was the captain and the coach was John Bracewell. "It was a very successful team. They were led well," Reid said.

Of that team Vettori (who made his New Zealand captaincy debut during the one-day series against Bangladesh) and Oram have been touted for future leadership roles, while McMillan has fallen off the pace. On that 96 tour, though, Reid said McMillan was very much the leader. "He handled the team very well. A good captain with a good rapport with his players. I thought he would go well. I still think he will go well. He's just in a low at the moment," Reid said of the 28-year-old.

Reid has kept in contact with McMillan. "We talk about batting technique, which is the thing we're lacking a little bit in New Zealand cricket," Reid said. "He's been pretty receptive."

"I don't go overboard ... but we talk on the phone."

Reid, who was New Zealand's shining lights during some dark cricket days in the 1950s, said he is an example of how you can turn your technique, and form, around. "I was very much a front-foot pusher [like McMillan], but at the age of 25 I changed to back and across and behind the ball."

Reid says most of the great batsmen that were short of stature, like Don Bradman and Brian Lara, have back-and-across techniques.