Do Wright thing: bring back Baz

OPINION: IT MUST have seemed like such a good idea at the time. Let me take you back a few weeks when, in the wake of former Black Caps coach Andy Moles' ... ahem ... resignation, Brendon McCullum was relieved of the team's vice-captaincy. In fact, the position was disestablished and it had nothing to do with the recession.

We were told it was so McCullum could concentrate on his faltering game and yes, we were taken for idiots and somehow expected to believe this.

We were also required to accept there was no line to be drawn between, and no inference to be taken from McCullum's demotion and the sense that Moles had been the victim of a players' revolt.

If any of you believed that, I would also expect to find you waiting by the fireplace, reindeer nibbles in hand, on Christmas morning.

The relationship between a coach and his captain is a delicate and critical one and Moles must have realised, despite his later protests, that once Daniel Vettori stopped taking his calls, there might have been the teensiest of problems. Why, having allowed this unholy mess in the first place, would New Zealand Cricket compound it by silencing one of its more effective dressing-room voices?

Yes, McCullum's still there, still having his say, still being heard, and he has even rediscovered that form we had been told had deserted him.

So remind me again, what was the point of relieving him of the vice-captaincy in the first place? Was it just to make a point and if so, to whom? Who exactly did it serve, because I'm not buying that it was McCullum.

The person who is the captain of New Zeland is now also its vice-captain, coach and selector. I'm still not sure whether this is madness or genius but I'm pretty sure it can't last for long because he is already showing the signs of battle fatigue.

In the late 1980s, Sir Richard Hadlee's failing body was being kept together by bits of sticking plaster and string. Yet, with his legendary focus and the impressive medical support of various team physios and doctors, he was able to nurse himself to a test bowling world record.

Sir Richard was not the New Zealand captain. He did not run practice sessions. He did not pick teams. His voice was heard because he was one of the best players in the world but essentially he was left to focus on what he was good at, and what he was good at was making clever batsmen look silly. On the contrary, Vettori is being saddled with more and more responsibility, we are told, because it's good for him and therefore the team.

Or it might be, if we hadn't just learned he has a deep-seated shoulder injury; perhaps the worst kind of ailment if you are a slow bowler. Early reports seem to centre on speculation over whether he will last the year, let alone the season. He is, quite frankly, a disaster waiting to happen. And if it's not his shoulder it could be something else, such as the concussion that ruled him out of the Twenty20 matches with Pakistan.

But in the next few days, Vettori will help chose another test squad and yes, his name will be at its head. But what if that disaster arrives and we need to find another captain?

McCullum deputised in the Twenty20s but by all accounts the Kiwis were lucky to scrape together 11 fit players. Is McCullum now the man to captain the test team?

And how, with Vettori doing all the jobs that matter, is leadership being encouraged within that dressing-room? Do we look down the list, arrive at someone such as Ross Taylor and throw the dice? Or do we hand the captaincy back to McCullum, beg forgiveness and ask him to please treat it with respect?

NZC tells us one of the problems should be solved before the end of the year, which is when they'd like to have their new coach in place.

Logic tells us that coach will be John Wright. During his time with India, Wright was able to successfully massage some of the largest egos in the game while also allowing them to see beyond their natural genius to a place only reached with hard work and a commitment to a team environment.

We're talking Tendulkar here, not Taylor; Ganguly, not Guptill and, to paraphrase that great all-rounder Frank Sinatra, if Wright can make it there, he can make it anywhere.

There may be no more volatile sporting atmosphere on earth than that which surrounds India and its cricket team and to survive – and thrive – within that environment for more than four years may be everything NZC really needs to know.

If, as we suspect, NZC and Wright find some common ground, he will find himself in a Black Caps environment where self-importance doesn't seem to be the problem quite so much as accountability.

And when one of his first jobs is to find a deputy for Vettori we can only hope the conversation begins: "Now, Brendon ..."

eric.young@star-times.co.nz

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