Bruce Edgar New Zealand's new GM national selection

Bruce Edgar, the former New Zealand opening batsman, has been named the country's general manager national selection. Edgar will take up office next month, his primary role being aiding New Zealand head coach Mike Hesson in selecting the national team.

New Zealand Cricket had advertised to fill the role, and Edgar was eventually nominated for the job after being interviewed by a panel that included former quick Richard Hadlee. Having played 39 Tests for New Zealand between 1978 and 1986, scoring 1958 runs, Edgar also has a background in commerce. He played 64 ODIs too, and has a wealth of domestic experience with Wellington: he played 175 first-class games in a 15-year span, aggregating 11,304 runs, in addition to 3893 List-A runs from 119 games. After retirement, Edgar also got himself certified in coaching in Australia, and has worked on New South Wales' high performance programmes and coached batsmen in grade cricket in Sydney.

David White, the NZC chief executive officer, expressed delight at Edgar's appointment. "Bruce is highly respected within the cricket fraternity and he was a very successful player both on and off the field," White said. "He is considered methodical and logical, with exceptionally good attention to detail. And while Bruce has been recently living in Australia, he'll be supported in the role by the local knowledge of talent scouts and major association coaches."

Edgar spoke of his keenness to expose New Zealand's next generation of cricketers to foreign conditions. "Players need to be given opportunities to bridge the gap between first-class cricket and the international stage," he said. "I would like to see players given experience in the subcontinent and with local conditions in other countries."

NZC had announced last month that the national team's head coach would have the final say in selection, forming a two-member selection panel with the general manager national selection. Edgar takes the job following Kim Littlejohn's confirmation that he would not seek to extend his tenure in the role when his contract runs out in September. Edgar's contract will run through till the end of the 2015 World Cup.

Apart from the senior team, Edgar will also play a role in the selection process of the New Zealand A team and the Under-19 side.