Black Caps told to ’step up’ on India tour, or else?
By ANIFriday, October 22, 2010
WELLINGTON - The New Zealand Cricket board today held a 90-minute meeting with Black Caps captain Daniel Vettori, coach Mark Greatbatch and high performance director Roger Mortimer, and ordered the Black Caps to “step up” in an upcoming Indian tour after a humiliating one-day series loss to Bangladesh.
New Zealand Cricket (NZC) chairman Chris Moller said his board had “robust” discussions with Vettori and coach Greatbatch after the 4-0 whitewash, Bangladesh’s first series win against a major cricketing nation.
Moller said the board had decided against taking immediate action because next month’s Indian tour was imminent.
“The players, especially the batsmen, need to step up and perform and prove what the team is capable of,” the New Zealand Herald quoted Moller, as saying.
New Zealand Cricket also announced the formation of a committee to review the structure of the game in New Zealand.
The committee will include Moller, former international cricketer Stephen Boock and Rob Hart, judge John Hansen, and three as-yet unnamed former players.
“The remit of that committee will run from the grass roots of the game right through to the elite level, including the Black Caps,” Moller said.
New Zealand media have described the series loss as an all-time low for the country’s cricket team and expressed fears it will face similar thrashing during an upcoming Indian tour and at next year’s World Cup.
The Black Caps will play three Tests and five one-day internationals against the in-form Indians.
New Zealand Cricket chief executive Justin Vaughan said it was difficult to quantify what constituted success.
He said: “We’ll know it when we see it. We shouldn’t underestimate the size of the challenge in front of us, particularly in the test series. India are the No 1 ranked team, they’re playing at home - they are formidable, no question. That’s a pretty tough assignment.”
He added: “We want to see some real fight, we want to see production out of our top order batting. We cannot see a repeat of what we saw in the last series against Bangladesh, and in the latter part of the series in Sri Lanka.” (ANI)
