It’s been an amazing year, but the success is all down to Kane Williamson, says Gary Stead
New Zealand head coach Gary Stead admits that his first year with the Kiwis has been amazing, but puts all the success down to the leadership of Kane Williamson. New Zealand will kick off their ICC World Test Championship on August 14 with a two-match away series against Sri Lanka.
Exactly one year ago this Thursday, Gary Stead took over from Mike Hesson as the head coach of the Blackcaps. Stead came in with a wealth of experience spanning over a decade. However, even Stead could not have imagined how well it has gone. They shocked the Pakistanis away from home, winning the Test series 2-1. Then, they shocked nearly the entire world beating favourites India at the World Cup to enter their second successive final.
But, Stead would not take any of the credit to himself ahead of the first Test against Sri Lanka at Galle.
"It's been an amazing start, but it's got nothing to do with me. His leadership and captaincy was fantastic at the World Cup. Our relationship has grown but it doesn't mean we don't have some hard and confronting conversations at times, particularly around selection which is probably the toughest part of the role. The success of our team came down to a lot of Kane's decisions and the way he chose to lead the team on the field,” Stead was quoted saying by stuff.
Earlier in Stead’s career, he had led the White Ferns – the women’s cricket team – to a World Cup final in 2009, where they finished as runner-up to England. Ten years later, Stead was consoling his men who lost that heart-wrenching World Cup final, again, to England.
Few weeks later, in which Stead took a break, he was back at Bay Oval to help launch the World Test Championship and name the team for Sri Lanka. ‘Steady’ will remain at the helm for another year, till the end of the T20 World Cup in Australia next year. So far, what has impressed him most is the same thing many cricket commentators have come to say about the current Kiwi side: they are grafters.
"The thing that impressed me most about this team is their ability to adapt quickly to situations. When you consider playing at Abu Dhabi or Colombo, then New Zealand conditions, you players must adjust quickly and that's a real strength of this team. It's led by Kane and he's led from the front in terms of how we go about doing that," Stead added.