Former Australian coach John Buchanan is New Zealand’s new director of cricket, it has been announced.
Sports betting pundits note how the position has been created specifically for Buchanan and will see him overseeing the selection panel as well as governing the development of cricket in the country.
This is the 58-year-old’s first high-profile job since leaving his post as coach of Australia, a role he enjoyed for eight years from 1999.
During this time he led a dominant side to three World Cup wins and an incredible record of 16 test wins in succession. If he can have this type of impact on New Zealand cricket, it would be quite the achievement that is for sure.
Speaking about the role, Buchanan said: “It is an honour to be appointed to this challenging role. It is a wonderful opportunity to build on the work that has been done.”
There is certainly a lot of hard work to do to get New Zealand cricket to where it should be, despite the impressive World Cup campaign recently that saw them reach the semi-final stages.
The reality is that New Zealand are towards the bottom of the team standings in both test matches and One Day International cricket. In the shorter form, they recently lost a series 4-0 against Bangladesh, so things have to improve.
Buchanan seems aware of the task in hand though: “New Zealand Cricket has a proud history and it is a true honour to be given the responsibility. I want to be part of the next successful era and am committed to building sustainable high performance for New Zealand Cricket.”
The Australian, who is clearly in this for the long-term, begins his new post in May. Those placing sports bets wouldn’t expect the turnaround to be immediate, but Buchanan should be the type of character to get New Zealand cricket moving in the right direction.