Cricket: Snedden unleashes plan to drive cricket to the maximum

"Pushing the Boundaries" will be cricket's blueprint for the future, and New Zealand Cricket will release a strategic plan next month.

Chief executive Martin Snedden, in his address to yesterday's annual meeting in Christchurch, said New Zealand did not have the resources of other test nations but geography and population could not be an excuse.

"We have got to drive ourselves past that.

"We have to extract the absolute maximum that we can and get ourselves into the mental state where we push ourselves beyond what people reasonably expect and achieve more than what people expect," Snedden said.

"We have to push ourselves harder and harder, higher and higher, in all aspects of the game, not only at elite level.

"We have found through working on these matters at NZC that we are already thinking that way in our decision-making.

"We can't settle for the ordinary," Snedden said.

The major associations have regained some say on the selection panel that chooses the board of NZC.

Under the constitutional changes implemented after the Hood Report of 1995, the associations were removed from the process. That was theoretically to eliminate parochialism which was then seen as blighting the game's administration.

The selection panel included two independent members of the Institute of Directors, or their nominees, a representative from the board and the president and immediate past president of NZC, or their nominees.

An Auckland motion that the presidential options be replaced by two nominees of the major association gained the necessary 60 per cent support to be passed.

Rex Smith, the chairman of Auckland Cricket, said: "We are not seeking a return to a delegate-based system. If supported, it will be the responsibility of nominees that they have the required skills and abilities to undertake the role.

"We feel it would be a proper balance with two nominees."

Former New Zealand captain and international match referee John Reid headed off Stewart McKnight for the position as president, succeeding Dave Hoskin who has completed a three-year term.

"John is respected worldwide for not only his skills as a player but also for his work as an international match referee," Snedden said.

Reid, a top allrounder, captained New Zealand in 34 tests and was named Wisden International Cricketer of the Year in 1959.

Marlborough junior cricket official Mike Rhodes was awarded the Sir Jack Newman Trophy for outstanding service to the game at junior level.

- NZPA