Crowe warns of Vettori burnout

Martin Crowe has expressed concerns about the workload of Daniel Vettori, who has become one of the most powerful New Zealand captains in history after getting a place in the selection panel.

"I do worry that the workload will burn Dan out," Crowe told the Dominion Post. "[Being] captain of the national team is exhausting enough." Besides captaining the team, Vettori is also the side's leading bowler and an important cog in the lower order.

On Sunday, he and coach Andy Moles were included in the selection panel, which also has former players Glenn Turner and Mark Greatbatch. Captains and coaches usually have a say in selections, but this is the first time they are being given voting rights. After the new appointments, Turner had said Vettori and Moles would have to put more time into team selection as they would now have to present their cases to the panel.

Another former New Zealand captain, Ken Rutherford, backed the radical move but said that there was potential for problems to crop up. "Vettori is a wise man and, better than anyone else, will know what is required to ease his team out of the doldrums," he said. "His relationship with the coach appears strong, and that might be a problem at the selection table, as Glenn Turner, in particular, is stubborn and won't have his opinion easily massaged for consensus sake. Therefore, there could be a recipe for some conflict."