Daniel Vettori
Daniel Vettori took over the leadership position from Stephen Fleming in November 2007. And, since his appointment New Zealand’s performance has been degrading! And, so finally the sad unimpressive stint of his has now come to an end. To make the event even more miserable Kiwi’s lost the test series 1-0 to Pakistan. Vettori said that he had made the decision to relinquish the captaincy after the 2011 World Cup three and a half years ago.
“I made that decision three and a half years ago,” Vettori said. So that’s it. My timing was always to finish after the World Cup and that stays the same.
Vettori individualistically has matured and did really well with both bat and bowl during this period. As captain, Vettori took 116 Test wickets at an average of 33.38, and hit four centuries and nine fifties to aggregate 1917 runs. And, so he said “There are always regrets, you always want to perform better. But I can walk away from the captaincy thinking that I gave it everything, particularly with my performance.”
But, then, at the same time the Kiwi team has seen a dip in their form.
Under the left-arm spinner, NZ have won just six Tests – in which four were against Bangladesh! In the rest – one was against England and one against Pakistan. The disaster is the NZ team has lost 18 matches and 13 have gone as a draw under him! In the 13 series Vettori led the Kiwi’s they have lost on 9 occasions.
Vettori also came up with praise for the team pointing out that there are some really talented players in the side. And, this was evidently visible in the matches against Pakistan and England last year when NZ won! “The Test win against England and the Test win against Pakistan last year were highlights. Just seeing a group of young guys come into the team. It’s a vastly different outfit from the one I started captaining and I think there are some really talented players there,” he said.
When questioned about his retirement from Test Cricket, he said, “Test cricket is the part of the game I love. I want to play for as long as I can. There are still a lot of things I want to achieve, so there’s no way I’m stepping away from Test cricket.”
Tags: Captain, Cricket, Daniel Vettori, New Zealand, NZ, Test Cricket, Test Series
