Wright reveals plan for New Zealand future

John Wright says that even though he's not a New Zealand selector, now he has been appointed as acting high performance manager for NZC, he will certainly be offering his opinions. Wright was appointed in the role on Friday as a replacement for Ric Charlesworth.

Wright hopes he is chosen as a selector when the rotation rolls around next year. "That may evolve," he told The Dominion Post. "In the meantime I'd like to be able to give my opinion on the subject, in fact I will."

Wright denied he has been underemployed since taking the role in August, with New Zealand struggling in South Africa under John Bracewell. "That's a matter of opinion," he said. "It is not like you can come in and wave a wand overnight."

He said the chief executive wanted him to focus on settling in first. "Justin Vaughan said to me 'Look, I want you to get to know how it works for the first few months' and that is what I've done. Now I've got a fair understanding of where we are at and probably what is needed really."

While he would one day consider being an international coach again, at the moment his focus is on being high performance manager. "I coached at the top level for nearly five years, I wouldn't rule it out again, but I'm pretty excited about this role. I can help drive performance at all levels of New Zealand cricket."

And he expressed his sympathies for Bracewell's current situation as coach of a team that was in some trouble. "I've known John for a long time and it is not a nice situation losing."

He revealed his methods of getting New Zealand cricket back on track. "I'm a bit old fashioned. We need to get back to the real basics of hard work. To me it is not rocket science.

"If you want to get to the top you have to have a very good set of basic skills and be able to produce them at any stage, in any situation, and that requires a lot of work. The great players that I played with and coached had one thing in common, they all had very sound technique. That is what I need and if anyone is not like that then we have to think about that."