NZ Cricket appoint national selector manager

Kim Littlejohn has been appointed as the New Zealand Cricket's national selector manager to oversee the selection of New Zealand squads from under-19s to the Black Caps.

Littlejohn joins from Bowls Australia where he held a dual role of high performance manager and national team manager in the past seven years. He previously worked as Baseball Victoria operations manager and as a sport development officer with a local government organisation after starting his working life as an investment banker.

The national selection manager is a new full-time role and will be responsible for the selection of men's and women's international cricket squads from under-19s through to the Black Caps and White Ferns.

Littlejohn will be responsible for establishing a comprehensive profiling system as players progress along the pathway of representing New Zealand and, in doing s, o use a network of cricket coaches and key stakeholders.

"The appointment is a fantastic step forward for NZC as we look to create a system that gives us a strongly integrated networking and profiling system for talent identification, performance measurements and team selection in New Zealand," NZC director of cricket John Buchanan said.

"It is quite different to the traditional selection role, requiring a specific systems skill set. A key part of the role will be accessing and utilising the wealth of knowledge that already exists within cricket, including first-class coaches, high performance staff and New Zealand's cricket experts - in that respect it is more inclusive than previous models.

"The selection panel agreed that Kim was the right fit for the role. Kim brings extensive experience from Bowls Australia where his operational skills and understanding of high performance sport were highly regarded. Although he is new to cricket in New Zealand I am confident his will mean he has no issue getting up to speed with new selection system, performance focused management, people management, and cultural change.

"It is worth noting that Mark Greatbatch provided invaluable input and expertise during his time in the acting NSM role. However, the selection panel decided that Kim was the candidate who best matched the requirements of the role with the appointment also endorsed by John Wright."

Littlejohn will start on September 19 and his initial task will be to work with John Wright to select the New Zealand squad for the upcoming tour of Zimbabwe.