Cricket: Central's coach tipped to leave

Central Districts could be looking for a new coach in the next few days, with incumbent Dermot Reeve tipped to be heading home to Sydney.

CD's win over Northern Districts in Hamilton last night put them into Sunday's HRV Cup final against Auckland and kept alive their hopes of qualifying for this year's Champions League in India.

Reeve, a former England test and ODI player, joined CD as coach for the start of the 2008-09 season, replacing another former England international, Graham Barlow. It has been a colourful tenure and speculation is strong that he has lost respect in the dressing room.

During the pre-Christmas stage of the Plunket Shield, the 46-year-old Reeve slammed Auckland and Northern Districts' for contriving an artificial result after the first three days of the first-class match had been badly hit by rain at Colin Maiden Park early in December.

Then he hit out at Auckland's English import Ravi Bopara, accusing him of doctoring the ball in the one-day match against CD in Palmerston North on December 20. "I would take an oath and swear on my children's lives that I saw Ravi Bopara using his nails on the ball to help it swing," was Reeve's most eye-catching quote.

For that, he received a censure from New Zealand Cricket and a fine of $750. More recently, Reeve had a bust-up with a senior CD player and last Sunday there was a boundary confrontation involving Reeve and several Otago players during the HRV Cup game at University Oval.

Yesterday, senior CD player, and former international, Mathew Sinclair said there had been "a certain incident" in a game but "it meant nothing".

"We've discussed it in the team and we've moved on. It hasn't really affected us," Sinclair added.

Sinclair felt a verbal exchange between Reeve, one of cricket bible Wisden's players of the year in 1996, and a player had been blown out of proportion in a Sunday newspaper.

Last week, CD lost a rain-affected Twenty20 match by 19 runs to Wellington and Reeve bit his tongue. "I don't really want to say what I would really like to say," Reeve said. "I don't want to get into the hot water with New Zealand Cricket again."

Under Reeve, CD were beaten in the first-class final by Auckland last season, and finished fourth in the one-day competition and fifth in the Twenty20. This season, they sit third in the one-day competition and fourth in the Plunket Shield.

New Zealand Cricket did not return calls last night.