NZC concerned about Otago's performances

Rob Walter.
Rob Walter.
New Zealand Cricket is concerned by Otago's poor run of form during the past two years.

But equally the national body believes the major association has made improvements in its development programme.

The Volts have finished last in five of the six tournaments during the past two seasons.

That poor run of results has sparked questions about the culture of the side, the motivation of the senior players and the performance of coaching staff headed by Rob Walter.

New Zealand Cricket high performance general manager Bryan Stronach did not want to airbrush any concerns but said there was reason for Otago cricket fans to feel optimistic about the future.

"To answer your question are we concerned - yes, yep," he said.

"You don't want to be as consistently bad as that.

"But one of the things I could say is we had more concerns around their development and high performance area and I actually think they are doing a really good job around this now.

"There is a whole lot of stuff they are putting in place which is fantastic. The thing is that will take a little bit of time to come through for it to be seen in the results."

When a team is performing poorly the coach is usually the first target.

But many of the senior players performed below the expected standard. There have also been grumblings about the culture and Stronach acknowledged he had heard the same rumours.

"My gut feeling is it is wider than just the coaching but I think Rob has some work-ons. But I also think he has some massive strengths."

Walter is contracted through NZC. He was initially contracted for two years but signed a one-year extension.

Stronach said Walter's performance was reviewed continually but his formal review would take place after the Otago Cricket Association's review was completed.

The association has taken the step of commissioning an independent review. Alex McKenzie, of High Performance Sport New Zealand, will conduct the review and he has been given wide terms of reference.

He starts on Monday and the review is expected to take a week and a-half.

"The key for Otago at the moment, which coaching is just one part of, is that independent review. We will look at what comes out of that and piggyback off the back of it."

The decision to centrally contract Walter is part of a pilot programme introduced in the hope of fostering better alignment between the major associations and the national body.

The programme will be reviewed at the end of the three-year period but Stronach believes it is one way the national teams can gain an advantage.

"There are definitely aspects of it that we like but there are also a whole lot of things we could do better as well.

"It is hard finding the balance between giving the major associations their own identity but also getting them working towards the bigger picture, as well. If you go too far either way, you lose something.

"A lot of our models around coaching have been based around winning. But you could have a fantastic coach who is doing an amazing job developing athletes but they lose.

"Based on the winning model, we'd get rid of them. But we could have a horrible coach with some great players who win everything and we keep the coach.

"What we are trying to do is get back to judging the coach on his coaching.

"Winning is part of that and has to be part of that. But it is not 100% of that and that is what we are trying to explore."

 

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