Cricket: Fair dinkum! Rixon's leaving a stable ship

Despite his success, nationality has always overshadowed the scoresheet of the NZ cricket coach, says Richard Boock

He might be one of the most successful New Zealand cricket coaches on record, but when it comes down to tin tacks, Steve Rixon will always be an Aussie.

The man who steered New Zealand to more test wins than any of his predecessors steps down at the end of the World Cup and tour of England, following two of the most dramatic years in Kiwi cricket history.

Appointed after the overthrow of Glenn Turner in 1996, the former Australian wicketkeeper undeservedly caught much of the fallout from that controversy, and quickly realised that no amount of success was likely to overshadow the business of his nationality.

But there was success. Fair-dinkum success, too.

Under Rixon, New Zealand won seven and lost eight test matches (with another seven drawn), while winning 20 one-day internationals out of 53 (three tied). Turner, in comparison, did not win a test in his previous eight-match tenure, but ended with a useful nine from 19 ODI record.

With the sweat-banded Aussie in charge, there were precious few dramas off the field, no-one was caught smoking dope, nightclubbing until all hours, or charging expenses to team-mates' rooms. All the best players were available again, and there were no walk-outs in the middle of tours.

For all this, however, the suspicion is that Kiwi cricket followers might not be sad to see the last of him.

Cynics are already asking: "Did New Zealand improve because of him, or in spite of him?"

Rixon, for his part, is happy to be judged on the performance of the side in England, although he believes the "bigger picture" already shows where the improvement has occurred.

"The biggest change has happened up here," he says, tapping his forehead. "The guys are confident; they believe in themselves, and you can tell by the way they're talking that they rate themselves a lot more than they used to.

"I expect to be judged on our effort in England - it's time to mark our performance," he said. "But I think we've already seen a dramatic improvement in terms of the guys' sense of belief - they're becoming far more self-suficient."

And because of that, Rixon said, there was a determination in the World Cup squad to emulate the deeds of the 1992 and 1996 teams in making their presence felt during the one-day tournament - which starts at Lord's on May 14.

Warren Lees' side reached the semi-finals in 1992 before being ousted by the eventual winners, Pakistan, while Turner's team smashed 286 in the quarter-final against Australia in 1995 before going down by six wickets at Madras.

"I reckon this is the most open World Cup of all time," he said. "Any number of teams can win the tournament, and we're definitely one of them. We're not just going over there to compete in pool play or the Super Six section - we can win the whole thing."

The former New South Wales coach said New Zealand's strategy of using strike bowlers early in the innings to counter the flying start before moving into a containment phase with bowlers like Chris Harris and Gavin Larsen - would continue to be practised at the World Cup.

"It's worked for us so far, so we'll persevere with it in England, just like we'll try to continue to get a good start to our batting with guys like Nathan Astle, and exploiting that platform through our flexibility in the middle-order."

Rixon said that after the World Cup and the subsequent four-test series against England he intended to return to New Zealand to assist with the integration of the management team.