Cricket: NZ role unlikely just yet

Jeff Crowe is happy to consider a future move back into New Zealand Cricket (NZC) management, but perhaps not any time soon.

The International Cricket Council match referee and former New Zealand captain and manager has been asked by NZC CEO Justin Vaughan for his views on a review of the team structure.

"I have said that my family and I are comfortable living in the United States at present and a move to New Zealand is not in the immediate plans but never to rule anything out.

"I am enjoying my role as an ICC referee but down the line I would like to further my career in other forms of cricket and sports administration."

Crowe's involvement in a possible general manager-type role could be in contrast to current NZC plans for selecting a specific coach from a short list.

Vaughan said NZC are still looking for a coach to help a young batting unit, rather than someone necessarily high-profile, domineering or autocratic when there is an experienced skipper in Daniel Vettori.

However, it's understood no firm structure has been set. Vettori and Vaughan are expected to discuss the matter in the next week. The successful candidate is expected to be in place for the series against Bangladesh in February.

Former coach David Trist was in charge for part of Crowe's management reign.

"He knows his cricket, loves his cricket and is fiercely patriotic. He's got captaincy experience, match referee experience and connects well with the players. I was the richer for having him as my manager. We both valued cricketers who were well-rounded people."

Trist says Vettori at that time was still in the early stages of development as a player and would have taken note of Crowe's influence.

"The players always respected Jeff for his knowledge, his experience and his calmness. He knew what his role was and stuck to it."

"[Having a general manager] is not an impossible way to do it, using my own examples of what worked and what didn't as coach. I was comfortable with bringing in someone to work one-on-one with players, if it was required. Jeff would be more than capable of drawing in the appropriate people.

"The ideal in my time was for Stephen Fleming to become increasingly powerful. Vettori has shown he relishes getting those same opportunities Fleming had, much like his captaincy contemporaries Andrew Strauss [England], Ricky Ponting [Australia] and MS Dhoni [India]."

Crowe returns for the under-19 World Cup at Christchurch in the New Year.