Cricket: NZC draws line under Taylor saga

David White
David White
New Zealand Cricket has announced that it wants to "draw a line" under the Ross Taylor controversy and will not be looking into the "additional material" which had apparently come to light on the saga.

The dropping of Taylor as captain in favour of Brendon McCullum while the team were in Sri Lanka sparked a furore which culminated in a press conference in Wellington last week in which NZC chairman Chris Moller said new material had been discovered which shone a different light on the saga.

He refused to comment on the nature of the material which simply sparked more speculation and now it appears the organisation has gone cold on either revealing it or acting on it.

"NZC has reached the conclusion that there was obviously misunderstanding and miscommunication between the parties involved," said chief executive David White.

"We've already acknowledged mistakes were made on this issue and we have learned from those mistakes. Team management has given an undertaking to improve communication and to ensure nothing similar occurs again. The Board and Management of NZC make that same commitment," he said.

"NZC believes it now serves no useful purpose to further rake over the events of the captaincy change. It is time to draw a line under the issue," White added. "We now need to focus on the tour of South Africa. This is going to be a challenging tour against one of the leading teams in the world, so it is important that the team now focuses and prepares to ensure it is competitive in this series."

The decision was announced in a press release today which continued a conciliatory line after strident criticism of the organisation from former players including Martin Crowe, who "metaphorically" burned his team blazer, and Dion Nash.

In a bid to heal the wounds, NZC has invited former New Zealand captains to meet and discuss their views on the sport in this country in the New Year.

Moller had already invited former players to be constructive with their views by having their say on a restructured board.

Former captains will be invited to attend the meeting which is intended to be an annual event. A reunion of former New Zealand players will also be held during the third test against England at Eden Park in March.

 

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