NZ_IN_RSA_REPORT_29JAN95

NZ tour of SA report - Leaked document

A 5-page report on the NZ tour of SA prepared by NZC's director of cricket Rod Fulton (former Canterbury and ND batsman) has been leaked to the media. The report was prepared from interviews after the tour, and is very damning of The Management on the tour. The tour itself was described as a "debacle." Interviewed were the manager, coach, and several players.

Reasons for the tour failure cited were:

1. A failure by the coach (Geoff Howarth) to maintain discipline, enthusiasm, and harmony. He eventually opted out to the extent that only the captain (Rutherford) and vice captain (Crowe) held team discussions.

2. A split in team ranks between Canterbury players and the rest.

3. Late night carousing. (eg, regular drinking until 2am), and failure by coach, captain and vice captain to notify the manager of this.

4. Lack of respect for NZC and lack of pride in representing NZ.

He partially exonorated Rutherford by saying he was not a regular part of the social scene and wanted to win badly but that nevertheless his off-the-field personal standards were not high enough. (ome of this was rejected by Rutherford).

Fulton made some recommendations, some of which have not (as yet anyway) been implemented.

1. Complete change of management.

2. Removal of both Rutherford and Crowe from captain/vice captain.

3. Tougher stand on discipline by NZC.

4. Gren Alabaster to be team manager (implemented already).

5. Coach (long-term) to be either Glenn Turner or Mike Shrimpton.

6. Captain to be Canterbury's keeper Lee Germon (who is not an established test player).

7. Contracting all players on a performance based system for 12 months, with reviews after each such period.

He was also critical of the board for failing to heed the warning signs about Geoff Howarth in England last tour, and of the FIVE warnings the NZC board had during 1994 about team discipline.

He says that several current players are disillusioned with NZ cricket (Andrew Jones was NOT mentioned by name) and have no real wish to be involved util a more professional environment is created.

(Adapted from an article in The Sunday Star-Times, Jan 29, 1995 by Trevor McKewen)