Taylor's vice-captaincy kept very hush-hush

OPINION: New Zealand Cricket cannot quite utter the word but Ross Taylor knows what he is.

"I'm vice-captain for the next two series against Bangladesh and Australia," Taylor told the Sunday Star-Times last week.

Within the team it might be important to avoid using words like vice-captain or deputy as part of the process of building a wider leadership group, but the semantics over the vice-captaincy serve little purpose in a public forum.

NZ Cricket's aversion to the term extended to avoiding using the word "vice-captain" in its statement on Friday; instead it said Taylor had been given an "opportunity" and would "step in as captain" if needed.

This stems back to when Brendon McCullum lost the vice-captaincy late last year in the wake of Andy Moles' resignation as coach following a negative player review.

At the time NZ Cricket said the VC role had been disestablished. Having rubbed out the job title it can hardly turn around and announce Taylor as a vice-captain.

If there's confusion over Taylor's title, at least the player and his bosses were specific when they said Taylor would be vice-captain – sorry, stand-in-captain-if-Dan-is-injured – for just the series against Bangladesh and Australia. Beyond that, no one's saying anything.

NZ Cricket chief executive Justin Vaughan said: "For this series we wanted to give Ross the opportunity – he hasn't had a lot of captaincy opportunities of late and we believe he has got that potential.

"That by no means is saying the Ross is No2 and Brendon is No3 – that isn't the case."

But as much as NZ Cricket has tried to play down the rise of Taylor at the expense of McCullum, it seems as if Taylor is being groomed to succeed Vettori, possibly as early as next year.

If Vettori is good to his word he will step down as captain after next year's world cup.

Taylor, 25 (he turns 26 in March), has been praised for his maturity by all who have had anything to do with him, and while his experience with leadership is restricted to a stint with the New Zealand under-19 team a few years back and some odd jobs since, he's the most obvious candidate to succeed Vettori.

As New Zealand's best batter, he seems certain to be part of the team for years to come. Apart from McCullum there is no other player who stands out as both a reliable performer and a strong leader.

So the next 18 months loom as Taylor's apprenticeship before he takes over from Vettori in the middle of 2011, at which time he will 27 and roughly the same age Vettori was when he took over from Stephen Fleming.

In the short-term, Taylor said not much would change on the field, with himself and McCullum continuing to offer support and advice for Vettori.

"Brendon is still going to have a leadership role and will be giving advice to Dan.

"The only real difference is that if Dan is not available I will captain the side.

"Nothing changes for me – I've just got to go out there and score runs."

Taylor admitted he'd always had ambitions to captain his country since he was young but added: "There's still a long way to go before that happens."

Maybe so, but it seems New Zealand Cricket is not far from embracing its first national captain of Pasifika descent.

- © Fairfax NZ News