Cricket: Vettori should quit as selector: Bond

Former New Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond is urging Black Caps captain Daniel Vettori to step down from the national team's selection panel.

Vettori, coach Mark Greatbatch and former captain and coach Glenn Turner make up the current selection panel, with vice-captain Ross Taylor also an on-tour selector.

The system was reviewed by New Zealand Cricket after the 0-4 one-day international series defeat in Bangladesh but continued for India, where the test side has competed strongly, drawing the first two tests.

Bond believes the current selection hierarchy needs improvement, but doubts any changes will happen before the World Cup in February.

"I'd like, from Dan's point of view, to have some strain taken off him. Especially selecting, it would be nice to see that change," Bond told today's Dominion Post newspaper.

"They've gone down a path and rightly or wrongly, with the World Cup coming up, you've got to stick with it rather than make wholesale changes. The proof will be in what happens in the next few months.

"Whether I agree with it or not, I hope the guys go well and hope they win."

Bond said that with two of the three selectors on tour, only Turner could keep an eye on domestic cricket, which was an advantage to those players currently on tour.

Turner was at the first two days of Wellington-Northern Districts here this week, then moved on to Napier yesterday for the Central Districts-Canterbury match.

"Especially if you're a player, you want to know if there's someone there watching you. If you're playing well, it's tough when there's only one selector around. That's one of the things they'll have to look at," Bond told the newspaper.

"It's a perception thing, you want to know if you're playing well then you're doing it in front of a selector and you've got a chance to be picked."

* The Black Caps play the third test match in their series against India in Nagpur tomorrow.

- NZPA