- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
New Zealand Cricket (NZC) general manager Geoff Allott described the Black Caps’ unprecedented series loss to Bangladesh as a “hiccup” on Wednesday and insisted the team’s fundamentals were sound.
Speaking ahead of an NZC board crisis meeting on Friday to discuss the team’s humiliating 4-0 whitewash in a one-day series against the cricketing minnows, Allott blamed New Zealand’s batsmen for the loss.
“It was clear that some of our decision-making around our shots was not acceptable,” he told Radio NZ, adding that the batsmen had repeated the same mistakes over and over.
“That’s probably the biggest disappointment along with the hurt for the guys themselves.”
New Zealand media have described the series loss as an all-time low for the country’s cricket team and expressed fears it will face similar maulings during an upcoming Indian tour and at next year’s World Cup.
Questions have been asked about the individuals, structures and systems around the team, but captain Daniel Vettori considered that to be an irrelevance.
“Whatever system is put in place is irrelevant because it is up to the players to step up and make sure they’re part of a winning team,” he said.
“That is my responsibility as captain, it ends with me as captain, I have to be in charge of a team which is winning games.”
Allott said changes were needed and he hoped the Bangladesh tour would act as a catalyst to spur on New Zealand’s players.
He gave no indication of how NZC was planning to respond to the loss and was non-committal when asked if coach Mark Greatbatch’s job would be on the line at Friday’s tour post-mortem.
“All of us are responsible, we believe we’ve got the best players and the best structure at the moment to take the team forward to the World Cup,” he replied.
“We’ve had a bad hiccup in the preparation for that goal, that’s what we’ve got to immediately address.”
Allott was adamant the Black Caps could bounce back.
“We’ve been in similar situations in the past and turned it around fairly quickly, probably not as dire as it is at the moment but we have no alternative,” he said.
He denied New Zealand’s players travelled to Bangladesh underestimating their opponents, saying they always knew it would be a tough tour against an emerging team hungry for success.
Greatbatch, Vettori and performance director Roger Mortimer called Friday’s meeting because they wanted to explain what happened in Bangladesh, the NZC said in a statement.
New Zealand will name their squad for India on Sunday.
Build your own fantasy cricket team and put it to the test with Draftstars daily fantasy competitions. Pick your match, pick your team and watch the points roll in to take out cash prizes on each match. What are you really gambling with? Set a deposit limit.