Cricket: High-performance expert on board

New Zealand Cricket's push for success broke new ground yesterday when they announced the signing of world-acclaimed high-performance coaching expert Dr Ric Charlesworth.

Widely regarded as a leader in his specialist area, Charlesworth will move to Christchurch at the end of the year, although he is expected to take over as NZC's high-performance manager in October.

He is one of Australian sports' best known identities, having starred as an international hockey player, a Sheffield Shield cricketer, a double-gold-medal winning Olympic coach, and a six-time winner of the country's "Team Coach of the Year" award.

More latterly, Charlesworth has worked as a high-performance consultant for the Fremantle Dockers AFL side, and for both rugby and soccer interests in Britain.

His appointment, which fills the vacancy left by former test batsman John Reid, signals a shake-up of NZC's high-performance programme, and is expected to add significant value at both developmental and international level.

Charlesworth said from his home in Perth yesterday that the New Zealand job was exactly what he'd been on the lookout for.

"I'm up for a change or a challenge when one comes around," he said.

"This is something for me to get my teeth into really. I wasn't specifically looking for this job but in the end I didn't want to take something I didn't like the sound of, and this one sounded good."

Charlesworth worked with the Dockers for a couple of years after the Sydney Olympics, then for the Australian Institute of Sport; he had a year overseas, did some work with rugby and soccer in Britain while living in Italy, and wrote his most recent of four books.

He will arrive in New Zealand later in the year with partner Carmen and sons Oscar, 5, and Hugo, 3, confident that he can both help NZC in their quest to be No 1, and adjust to the rather unlike-Perth weather of Christchurch.

"Yeah, the weather might be a little bit different but last year I was in Italy, and living at the same latitude north as Christchurch is south, so I've got an idea of what I'm in for.

"As for the cricket, 80 per cent of the job is generic coaching; it doesn't matter whether you're coaching a hockey team or a football team or a soccer, or baseball team.

"There's a whole range of parallels, and it's not really until you get right down into the specifics of each code that anything changes."

Charlesworth said life in the relative isolation of Perth had probably prepared him for what lay ahead in New Zealand.

"NZC are in pretty good shape considering they've got a population base of only four million people. They punch above their weight at the moment.

"So it's not the size of the population, it's the quality of your programme that provides you with a competitive edge."

Dr Ric Charlesworth's CV

* Eight years as coach of the Australian women's hockey team, during which the team was ranked No 1 in world for eight consecutive years and won gold at the Atlanta and Sydney Olympics.

* Two years working with the Australian Institute of Sport as mentor coach to five national team coaches.

* High performance consultant to Fremantle Dockers AFL club and, during a stint living in Italy, professional soccer and rugby teams.

* Australian Team Coach of the Year Award in 1994 and then, for five consecutive years, between 1996 and 2000.

* Represented Australia in 227 hockey internationals between 1972 and 1988, captaining the team on 130 occasions. Scored 90 goals for Australia.

* Attended four Olympics as a hockey player (Munich, Montreal, Los Angeles and Seoul) and was also selected for a fifth, although boycott prevented him from attending Moscow Olympics in 1980.

* 47 cricket matches for Western Australia between 1972 and 1979, during which time Western Australia won the Sheffield Shield competition three times. He made his debut at 20 and was captain of the team in 1979.

* Author of four books on high performance coaching, including The Coach - Managing Success, a best-seller in Australia