Snedden dismisses rumours of Bracewell-Fleming rift

Martin Snedden: ensuring that his men get along fine © Cricinfo

New Zealand Cricket's chief executive, Martin Snedden, has dismissed suggestions of tension between the national team's coach and captain after making a special trip to check all was well in the squad. Snedden departed for London satisfied that the team had moved on from the desperate low of the 3-0 Test series loss to England, and that John Bracewell and Stephen Fleming were a happy coach-captain duo.

In England for a week of International Cricket Council meetings, Snedden arrived early to ease his mind on the state of the team, and spent three days with them in Manchester and Birmingham. He described the recent suggestions of a Bracewell-Fleming rift, made on television and in print by the former England captain, Michael Atherton, as "rubbish" and "mischief-making".

"I think Atherton has got absolutely no basis whatsoever for those comments," Snedden said. "I've spent a lot of time concentrating on that issue while I've been here just to satisfy myself that there is nothing happening that I didn't know about. I've enquired carefully around the team as well as talking pretty strongly to John and Stephen individually about it, and I don't think there's the slightest indication of that at all.

"They've got an excellent working relationship," he continued, "they complement each other really well. Like any situation, they'll both learn a bit out of this. John is only six months into his first international assignment, so he's going to reflect on this afterwards and I'm sure he'll take some lessons out of it, as will all of us."