KEY POINTS:
The selection panel will make decisions by consensus rather than voting, and the veto clause, which was Bracewell's prerogative, has been removed.
John Bracewell's right of veto over New Zealand selections has been removed, and he's pleased about it.
Bracewell was yesterday reappointed national coach for two more years, having started in 2003.
He has an Australian with a famous cricketing pedigree as head batting coach, and his old New Zealand teammate John Wright, who had a successful stint as India coach, joins the operation.
Wright, whose name had been linked as a possible replacement to Bracewell in the post-World Cup assessment of New Zealand's performance, will join the Christchurch-based high performance programme.
The specifics of Wright's role are vague but it ensures his expertise is on board rather than being snapped up elsewhere while his job is mapped out.
Mark O'Neill, son of former Australian batting great Norm O'Neill, starts on Monday. Good enough to have played 76 first-class games for Western Australia and New South Wales, hitting nine centuries and averaging 35, O'Neill is on a two-year deal.
The national selectors - Bracewell, Sir Richard Hadlee, Glenn Turner and Dion Nash - will in future decide teams on a consensus basis. Bracewell did have a veto card, which he said yesterday was never used. He said rather than removing a plank of his power, it relieved him of a burden.
"We are much more mature as a selection group and I think it's just part of our evolution," Bracewell said.
"It will be healthy for me, and for the other selectors. I don't think we've ever voted, but it [the veto] was always hanging there."
He said each selector, all experienced international players, brought particular strengths to the job. Hadlee's bent is statistics; Turner is big on technique; and Nash focused on the mental toughness and attitude aspects of selection.
"I think it's a pretty good balance and it is surprising how similar we are in our thinking," Bracewell said.
The selectors come off contract this month - after picking the 15-man squad for the inaugural world Twenty20 championship in South Africa in September - and a process to determine the next panel's makeup is being put in place.
Bracewell is delighted to have Wright on board. In his career of 82 tests over 16 years, Wright never sold his wicket short and Bracewell hopes Wright can impart some of his hard-headedness on the top order batsmen, as well as provide keys to toughening the mental side of the game for the country's up-and-coming players.
O'Neill, 48, spent the last 16 years coaching at club and state level with both Western Australia and NSW and he's delighted by the opportunity, which will have him based at the high performance centre in Christchurch but also on the road with the national side and travelling the country working with coaches and players.
"I can't wait to get there. It's a huge step up for me and I'm absolutely stoked to be offered this opportunity," he said from Australia yesterday.
His message on batting is simple: keep it simple.
"The game is complicated by a lot of people and if you concentrate on basically simple sequences you can't go wrong.
"Players who get to a certain level have got a lot of talent and the whole idea is make it as simple as possible, prepare yourself as honestly as you can and maintain your technique. Once you do that, you go into the middle and everything becomes automatic."
Bracewell is relishing the year ahead, with a programme which includes 10 tests against South Africa, Bangladesh and England, home and away, at least 15 ODIs and four Twenty20 matches, as well as that version's world champs.
"You couldn't get a better test programme and the Twenty20 world champs excite me because I quite like the nature of that game in terms of entertainment value and enjoyment."
The top table
* John Bracewell has been reappointed New Zealand coach for two more years
* Former New South Wales and Western Australian batsman Mark O'Neill is the head batting coach based at Lincoln
* Former test opener John Wright joins New Zealand Cricket's high performance programme
