The fall out of the New Zealand defeat to Australia has happened. Bracewell is calling it quits prematurely and an Englishman now pokes his head into the fray.
Former Warwickshire player Andy Moles was named Tuesday to succeed John Bracewell as New Zealand cricket coach. Moles, 47, has previously coached Kenya and Scotland and has been coach of the New Zealand provincial side Northern Districts for the past two seasons. His appointment, announced by New Zealand Cricket chief executive Justin Vaughan, followed news earlier Tuesday that Australian Matthew Mott, the leading contender for the role, had withdrawn. Mott decided to sign a new two-year contract with the Australian state side New South Wales, leaving Moles and former New Zealand allrounder Dipak Patel the only candidates for the position Bracewell will vacate in April. Current coach John Bracewell is contracted until April, but will relinquish his position to Moles.
In his first season in charge of Northern Districts - home province of New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori - he won the New Zealand first-class championship but Northern dropped to next-to-last place. Moles takes over the New Zealand team at a difficult time. It recently dropped to seventh place on the rankings of Test-playing nations and could drop to eighth - effectively last among major nations - if it loses the second Test against Australia which starts on Friday in Adelaide.
Moles, whose playing career was cut short by injury in 1998, said he was overwhelmed to be given the opportunity to coach New Zealand. Moles was a top-order batsman for the English country Warwickshire until injury forced his retirement in 1998. Talking about current outgoing coach Bracewell, Vaughan said that the New Zealand cricket, the players and Bracewell himself should be proud of his achievements. Among his career highlights were a Test series win against South Africa and one-day series victories over England, Australia, India and South Africa. The 50-year-old former New Zealand spinner also led the team to the semifinals of the 2006 Champions Trophy, 2007 World Cup and 2007 Twenty20 World Cup. Bracewell’s final match will be the second Test against Australia in Adelaide starting on Friday.
Andy Moles Takes Over from John Bracewell
Moles, meanwhile received a vote of confidence from New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori. “His strength is definitely the batting. Jamie How and Ross Taylor worked with him briefly during the A game against England and they were pretty pleased with the concepts he came up with. There’s a group of batsmen pretty excited about him coming on board”, Vettori said. Moles also assured that he would solve the Kiwis’ ongoing batting woes. “My forte was an opening batsman who didn’t have exceptional natural ability, but I got the best out of what I had”, he said. Moles believed the key to better batting performances was for players to get it into their heads that they had to bat for 130 or more overs in an innings, clearly indiacating that the current New Zealand crop batted too impatiently. Moles will be in charge for the first test against the West Indies in Dunedin, starting on December 11, but Vettori played down the quick baton change saying players were continually chopping and changing coach at provincial level and at the Indian leagues.
Meanwhile, high performance manager and wrongly but largely touted by the Kiwi media as the man to take over from Bracewell, John Wright will join the national selection panel alongside Moles, Glenn Turner and Dion Nash.
