Farewell Mike Hesson and welcome Gary Stead. Aotearoa's Blackcaps have a new coach in Stead, who is a veteran of kiwi cricket coaching and appears to have earned this job through his already-established connection with NZC and vast experience of domestic cricket. You'll struggle to find someone who can spin a hugely critical yarn about Stead's appointment and we now move from the waiting stage, into the anticipation stage.

I haven't had a lot to say about this, since Hesson retired. Outside of highlighting what the new coach has to suss out for the Blackcaps and also highlighting the intriguing rise of BJ Watling from rarely sighted Test wicket-keeper to playing a role in the appointment of the new coach and conveniently earning selection in the Blackcaps ODI squad, around the same time.

Other than those angles, there wasn't anything interesting to say about this process. Unlike mainstream media, I don't have any inside information and nor do I care about providing updates on who is has the inside running etc.

All the coaches mentioned as possible contenders were fine. All the coaches within Aotearoa and guys like Grant Bradburn do good work and given a slight tweak to domestic cricket being given greater priority (ol' mate Gavin Larsen getting a gig and now the 'A' tours sparking up again), it never really felt like an overseas coach was going to be considered.

Any geezer with some cricket knowledge in Aotearoa knows that we do pretty well for ourselves in producing cricket coaches. Whether it's the T20 coaches, Bradburn leading Scotland or the strength of coaching around the domestic teams, Aotearoa can be proud of how we breed quality cricket coaches.

Ultimately, I think I was going to be happy with any of the notable candidates getting the job. That meant that I wasn't very interested in the process of getting to this point - other than Watling's takeover of NZC - and kinda just wanted to fast-forward to the actual selection of a coach. Stead's the guy and now we wait to see what this guy is all about.

Like I said, I don't care for inside knowledge or undercover sources.

I know Canterbury have been good at cricket for a long time and not only have they won stuff under Stead, I like the balance of young and old that Stead has overseen with Canterbury. This resembles how I'd like the Blackcaps to be as the core group of Blackcaps will be supported by a wave of young cricketers who are supremely talented.

Stead had some OG veterans at Canterbury in Peter Fulton, Andrew Ellis and Todd Astle. Under Stead's watch, guys like Tom Latham, Henry Nicholls and Matt Henry have flourished, sliding through the levels from domestic young bucks to Blackcaps and more recently, Canterbury have reinvigorated their roster with further youth; Kyle Jamieson, Ed Nuttall, Cameron Fletcher, Henry Shipley, Will Williams, Chad Bowes, Ken McClure, Blake Coburn, Tim Johnston, Leo Carter, Cole McConchie.

All those different stages of experience and development have been blended together by Stead successfully. Most recently, there has been an influx of younger players (listed above and more) which reflects well on Stead's ability to identify talent and then get the best out of young cricketers. With Stead as coach, there are concrete examples of players getting better, tasting Blackcaps cricket and then improving even more; a clear pathway through Canterbury to the Blackcaps has been established by Stead.

There won't be too much opportunity for Stead to stamp his mark on the Blackcaps when the go to United Arab Emirates. Those squads have already been selected and Stead's influence will be most felt in the teams he selects, as well as selecting two more players for the ODI and T20 squads. This won't tell us a lot, however it will offer an enticing insight into how Stead views different players who are on the fringes of the Blackcaps.

Otherwise, Stead comes into a pretty sweet gig. A core group of experienced Blackcaps awaits and Stead would be silly to make any drastic changes, both in terms of selection and how the team operates. We may have to come up with a Stead + Larsen name (Starsen) at some point, if Stead and Larsen combine for some weird shenanigans. Until then, it's a clean slate and we wait for Stead's influence to be seen or felt.

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Peace and love 27.