Vettori game for more responsibility

Recently named captain of the Twenty20 side for the World Championship in South Africa, Daniel Vettori has said that he would relish the opportunity to lead the one-day and Test sides as well, if the offer comes his way.

Following Stephen Fleming's retirement from one-dayers after the World Cup, a decision on the ODI captaincy would have to be made before New Zealand leave for South Africa in November for a Test tour.

Vettori said that he had aspired to lead the side in all three forms of the game. John Bracewell, the New Zealand coach and member of the selection panel, had hinted earlier that Vettori would be the next in line to lead the Test side. As a one-day captain, Vettori has led his side to eight wins out of 11.

"I'm not daunted by any means," Vettori told the New Zealand Herald. "If my time comes and that's the way it falls I'd be more than happy to do it. Anybody with captaincy aspirations would love to captain in a Test match. But obviously there are a lot of things to work through before that comes, with what Stephen wants to do and with what the selectors want to do."

Vettori said that he'd been grooming himself for this role while on the field, thinking about the state of the match and coming up with ideas. "The most enjoyable thing is the control in the game, the idea that you can dictate in a lot of ways the momentum, or lack of it," he said. "I've always thought I've got a reasonable cricket brain and my mind always tends to work through ideas and permutations of what can happen. Now I can put those ideas into fruition and that's the most appealing thing."