Ready, Stead-y, going to be flexible
The Black Caps are being set up to succeed in an era where success in Twenty20 will become increasingly important.
New Zealand Cricket chief David White gave a short introduction as Gary Stead was unveiled as the team’s new coach yesterday, emphasising that he has been ‘‘given flexibility to introduce specialist coaching support,’’ if and when he wants to.
There are plenty of scenarios where such support might be useful, but help with the game’s shortest format – a hotbed for innovative thinking – is the obvious one, and with the likes of Stephen Fleming already putting his hands up, Stead shouldn’t have to look far.
The new coach admits he doesn’t have the all the answers to cricket’s problems, and was quick to list the many coaches with Kiwi roots making their mark on the Twenty20 circuit.
‘‘When you talk about some of the franchise coaches that are New Zealanders out there, like Stephen Fleming, Dan Vettori, Shane Bond, Mark O’Donnell, especially in the T20 game with the way it’s expanding so quickly, I’d be silly not to use the expertise of those people.’’
Stead revealed he has already had ‘‘a couple of quiet conversations’’ with potential coaches, and will have more once he officially starts on September 1.
The Black Caps are set to play seven Twenty20s in the next 12 months – three against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates, one against Sri Lanka at home, and three against India at home.
But from the end of the World Cup next July through the start of the World Twenty20 in Australia at the end of 2020, a 15-month period, the Black Caps are scheduled to play 28 such matches, more than in the past four years combined.
With glamour test series against Australia, England, and India on the cards during the 2019-20 summer, and ODIs still a regular occurrence, specialist input will be valuable, whether to keep players engaged, or to allow Stead to step back a bit.
While T20 is an obvious area where specialist coaches can help, Stead was quick to suggest getting to grips with foreign conditions as another where he might call on some extra assistance.
‘‘I’m not the fountain of knowledge or anything like that, so having different ideas coming in, I think that’s important. The modern-day cricketer, they need to hear different voices, and they need to be able to filter what’s right for them and what’s not.’’
One thing clear from Stead’s introduction was that he’s not going to come in and make everyone march to his tune.
‘‘I’m going into the role with my eyes wide open,’’ he said.
‘‘In the first three to six months, it’s your chance to go in with fresh eyes, and I will probably see things that people who have been there for a long time won’t see, because they’ve been ensconced in that environment.
‘‘I don’t intend on going in and changing a dramatic amount. There’s clearly been success under Mike Hesson and Kane Williamson recently and my intentions aren’t to throw that out the window.’’