Fleming says no to New Zealand job

Stephen Fleming, the former captain, is not interested in replacing Andy Moles as New Zealand's coach due to the time the appointment would take up. Fleming retired last year and has been a popular choice among players and pundits to step in for Moles, who resigned last week after the side's key men highlighted his tactical deficiencies to New Zealand Cricket.

"It is not my interest to coach internationally," Fleming said. "I am very happy with the business side of things I am looking to set up, and with my family life. I do not have the time [for coaching] and I do not have the desire."

Fleming captained New Zealand for a decade and played 111 Tests and 280 one-day internationals before retiring. Now 36, Fleming is establishing a business career as well as coaching Chennai in the Twenty20 Indian Premier League.

He also said it would not be appropriate to work with men who he was playing alongside last year. "The group of players there now are too close to my era, and also my coaching ability is unproven," he said.

Other contenders for the post include John Wright, the former India coach, who is currently New Zealand's high performance director, while Steve Rixon is reportedly interested. The side is about to start a series against Pakistan in the UAE and senior officials hope to make a full-time appointment by February, but may have to wait until after the IPL tournament.

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Fleming will make a wonderful Black Caps coach: Vettori

WELLINGTON: New Zealand's captain and de facto coach Daniel Vettori believes former skipper Stephen Fleming would make a wonderful Black Caps coach.

Vettori will lead the team to the United Arab Emirates for a One-day and Twenty20 series against Pakistan as both captain and coach following Andy Moles' decision on Saturday to step down as coach after a review process revealed he was ill-equipped to continue in the role.

With Moles not stepping up to the mark, Vettori has been effectively coaching the team for the past six months,

The Sunday Star-Times quoted Vettori as saying that he was happy to continue as player-coach for the next few months, including the home test series against Pakistan next month, but after that he would prefer to see someone come into the role.

"Stephen and I keep in regular contact and he's been quite a big help in going through all this stuff and some other things that have gone on. He has concerns about my workload and he wants to be a sounding board and do anything he can to help," Vettori said.

"He's definitely got coach written all over him and he could be an extremely successful one; it's just whether he wants to get back into that life of touring the world and in that regard it probably is too soon for him. But he would make a wonderful coach," he added.

New Zealand Cricket chief executive Justin Vaughan, when asked if Fleming was a coach candidate, said: "I don't think this is the right time."

In the short-term manager Dave Currie will have his leadership responsibilities upgraded to help Vettori, while current assistant coach Mark O'Donnell will remain with the team, stuff.co.nz reports.

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