In the past few days, television commentator Ian Smith, a former test wicketkeeper, and former New Zealand batsman Mark Greatbatch have put their weight behind John Parker's movement for better governance in New Zealand Cricket.
Turner has been linked with the group. When approached for comment by the Otago Daily Times, he responded: ''What we don't want is for things to be personalised. It is more about the issues rather than the personalities. Once you start going down that path, the real essence of it is lost.''
That ''better governance'' message was buried last week, with the release of a 77-point plan that, in part, raked over old ground to do with the removal of Ross Taylor as New Zealand captain.
What was said in that Sri Lankan hotel room, when Mike Hesson delivered the bad news to Taylor, has been hotly debated. The upshot was Taylor felt that he was lied to and there had been an agenda in place to replace him as captain.
Taylor pulled out of the tour of South Africa in disappointment. Publicly, Hesson and Taylor have agreed to move on and are working with each other. But the issue continues to fester in the public arena and almost everybody agrees the handling of the affair was appalling. New Zealand Cricket went so far as to make a very public apology to Taylor for the way it dealt with his sacking.
''What we certainly don't want is for that to be highlighted, because it is only a small part of a whole and just an example [of poor governance], you might say,'' Turner said.
In January, director of cricket John Buchanan, who admitted having a strained relationship with chief executive David White, told Fairfax Media there was a perception ''and sometimes perception is reality, that things like integrity, trust and accountability doesn't reside consistently, or constantly, within our organisation''.
They were damning comments from within the organisation and New Zealand Cricket has listened.
It is working through constitutional change. A new constitution has been drafted and feedback from the community has been sought.
The deadline for feedback is May 15, with the aim to convene a special general meeting in July to ratify the new constitution.
The board has agreed to resign en masse but it is uncertain whether the incumbents will stand for re-election.
The focus of the group formed by Parker, a former New Zealand test batsman, is to keep the pressure on and make sure the board honours that commitment.
When Turner was asked if he would seek a position on the board, he responded: ''Let's just wait and see. It is about keeping the pressure on so they do resign so we can have a new direction.
''The opposition, if you like, are saying let's get over this and move on, sort of thing. But you can't move on while that same group of people is running the game. That's the bottom line.''
