Cricket: Schedule delays naming of skipper

New Zealand Cricket is in no rush to install the successor to Dan Vettori as national captain.

The public debate over the next New Zealand cricket captain may be chewing up plenty of air time and column centimetres but don't expect an announcement any time soon.

In part, that's down to a change of schedules for this year but there are also a raft of new appointments to come out of a review post-World Cup.

New Zealand were to tour Bangladesh in May-June, but that trip has been put off until next year. So New Zealand have no international engagements until they visit Zimbabwe, now back on the test programme, in October, most likely for a test, a T20 and three ODIs.

Vice-captain Ross Taylor and the man he replaced in that role, wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum, are the only options. Both have their high-profile backers.

They might be keen to have a decision made, but NZC chief executive Justin Vaughan said there was no rush, now that Bangladesh is off this year's calendar.

"I'd need to have a good chat to Wrighty [national coach John Wright] about his views," he said. "It gives us a little more time to make a decision. I'm not saying we'd wait until September, but it may be more like May or June."

Tied in with that are a range of appointments which are due once the World Cup dust has settled. They include a new director of cricket, for which NZC is looking overseas at candidates as well as local options. An announcement is expected in about six weeks.

"We want to get the right person but we want that person soon," Vaughan said. "We are now clear in what we're after so I'd like to think in the next six to eight weeks we can push forward on that."

There is also the new team manager, with encumbent Dave Currie expected to stand down shortly, national selectors - convener Mark Greatbatch, Glenn Turner and Lance Cairns - are up for reappointment, plus various coaching specialists such as former South African speedster Allan Donald.

It makes sense that a chronological order apply. After all, there's no sense a panel which might be changed, appoints the new captain.

* Hopes of a multi-game Chappell Hadlee ODI series against Australia in February are gone.

New Zealand will play two tests in November across the Tasman but a scheduling issue means the one-day component of the summer cannot be squeezed in - and what's more New Zealand are now out of a proposed tri-series involving the hosts and India. They cannot take part in that series as they need to be home to host South Africa in the major event of the New Zealand summer, starting in February.

* Vaughan heads to India next week for a meeting which is expected to fine tune details for a world ODI league, to go hand in hand with the test championship.

They are part of the next Future Tours Programme, to run from 2012 until 2020. The test schedule is all but signed off, but the ODI component is still being worked through.

"We know what our programme is and it's really good. There are a few gnarly points of being able to fit in enough cricket round the ODI league but it's minor details in the grand scheme," Vaughan said. "We've got a lot of test cricket, which is great."

New Zealand need to find time to work in ODI series against Pakistan and Australia in the next four years to fulfil the criteria for the FTP.