Steady as it goes for coach
It wasn’t the best start to a future captain-coach relationship, for Gary Stead and Kane Williamson.
Last summer, Stead joined the Black Caps camp for a brief stint when batting coach Craig McMillan took some family time, as part of New Zealand Cricket’s succession planning.
Word later got around cricketing circles that something had irked the skipper. The story, recounted by several sources, was that Stead had tried to coach Williamson’s batting and that wasn’t well received.
It was nowhere near the cricketing crime of the century, and provided an early lesson for Stead’s future reference. Clearly the world’s No 4-ranked test batsman does it his way, toiling the longest in the nets and summoning assistance from familiar faces when required.
The fact 46-year-old Stead will be announced at NZC’s Auckland headquarters at 11am today as Mike Hesson’s successor, as reported by Stuff on Friday, shows no ill will lingers with Williamson who was regularly consulted throughout the process.
It also highlights Stead’s most important task as the 2019 World Cup, Boxing Day test in Melbourne and home tests against England and India loom in the next 18 months: supporting and empowering Williamson in his gruelling role as skipper in all three formats.
Hesson did it well in the postBrendon McCullum era, initially more prominent in the dressing room and with media as Williamson found his feet, then stepping back.
A cricket team should always be the captain’s not the coach’s, and Stead arrives into a successful, experienced unit who play for their skipper, backed by a senior core of Tom Latham, Ross Taylor, Tim Southee, Trent Boult and BJ Watling.
Stead has a reputation as a black and white, almost old school coach which didn’t endear him to every Canterbury player but helped them win three Plunket Shields in four years.
Did NZC get the best man? Of the applicants, and their budget, they did. It was never about poaching a big name, of which few were keen or available anyway in the world of big money franchise Twenty20.
For this one, it was Steady as he goes.