New Zealand Cricket chief executive David White has described his relationship with director of cricket John Buchanan as "professional".

In his first significant interview since former skipper Ross Taylor was axed more than a month ago, Buchanan said last weekend that his relationship with White was "frosty" at times and that NZC needed a change of culture for the Black Caps to perform consistently at the top level.

"This sort of situation [the Black Caps' first innings dismissal for 45 against South Africa in Cape Town two weeks ago] will recur if we don't address four things - integrity, trust, honesty and accountability," Buchanan said last week.

The score in the first test is the lowest by any test-playing nation since 1974, and New Zealand's second worst of all time after the infamous 26 all out, suffered against England in 1955.

Speaking publicly for the first time since Buchanan's comments, White said he and Buchanan were working hard at the "big job" at hand for NZC at the moment.

"We face a number of challenges. We've got a professional working relationship, but we've both a big job to do for New Zealand Cricket," he said.

It's been an uncomfortable five weeks for NZC since Taylor was effectively axed and replaced by Brendon McCullum after the Black Caps tour to Sri Lanka.

The organisation has been criticised for its mishandling of the incident, which led to NZC chairman Chris Moller apologising to the former captain.

In the aftermath, NZC announced it would be holding a new election of its board, and hired a PR agency.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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