Turner, Crowe to be NZC's talent scouts

Glenn Turner and Martin Crowe have been recruited by New Zealand Cricket (NZC) as "high-performance talent scouts", to identify potential New Zealand cricketers by watching domestic cricket. The duo will suggest names to national selection manager Kim Littlejohn and coach Mike Hesson.

Turner returns to the payroll of NZC after being removed from his position as the national selector, after six years in the role, by current director of cricket John Buchanan last year. Turner, days after being displaced by Littlejohn, had said he and New Zealand Cricket were "better off without each other".

But now he is happy to be back in the fold. "I've only been a year out of it and the six years prior to that meant that I got around the provincial scene and I've had an opportunity to see more domestic cricket than anybody else," Turner told Fairfax. "It's an opportunity to keep up with that knowledge and increase it again and get right up to date. Obviously cricket is still important to me and there's always the saying that you're better inside the tent than outside it."

The other recruit, Crowe, was diagnosed with a "very treatable" cancer a month ago.

Buchanan said an increase in the budget as the reason behind the new positions: "We're trying to increase the breadth of coverage. It's to do with budgeting, in that we were able to increase our budget in that area. [It's] also for [Littlejohn] to get a good handle on NZC and the sort of people that would be appropriate to fill those scouting roles."