Bracewell was an ODI success but a Test failure
Two John Bracewells leave New Zealand cricket next week
George Binoy
25-Feb-2013
Two John Bracewells leave New Zealand cricket next week. One, the ODI coach, should be regarded as a success. Under him, New Zealand maintained a strong reputation as capable of mixing it with the very best teams. The other Bracewell, the Test coach, must be rated a failure, writes Adam Parore in the New Zealand Herald.
Having played with Bracewell in the latter stages of his New Zealand career, I've found his transition to coach intriguing. Bracewell the player was all fire and brimstone, a hard nut, down to earth, who didn't pull any punches and didn't care what anyone else thought of him. Bracewell the coach was full of theories and while he still retained that spiky edge at times, he was positively mellow compared with the player of 20 years ago. I'd rather have seen more of the old Braces because I feel players relate better to a coach they feel is in sync with their thinking, who speaks their language, who thinks like they do.
No review of Bracewell's coaching era, which spanned five years from late 2003 to 2008, can fail to acknowledge his intensity to extract the best from the team and the seemingly endless amount of energy and enthusiasm he poured into that task. It was just that at times the way he went about it was like a misdirected missile exploding in numerous directions, writes Geoff Longley in the Press.
George Binoy is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo