Gary Stead has taken over as Canterbury cricket coach and high performance director.
The former New Zealand batsman and current New Zealand women's coach and replaces Bob Carter, who recently joined New Zealand as assistant coach to Mike Hesson.
Stead played five tests for New Zealand in 1999 and played 190 games for Canterbury, mostly as captain. He has coached the White Ferns, who are currently playing in the Women's World Twenty20 in Sri Lanka, since 2008 and worked with New Zealand Cricket in a high performance capacity before that.
Stead said he was "excited and proud'' to be given the job, Believing he was taking over a Wizards side in great shape. "I think the work Bob Carter has done with them has been superb and I hope to build on that,'' he said.
Canterbury Cricket chief executive Lee Germon added: "When we scoped this role we were determined to find a top quality candidate who could not only coach our Wizards side but develop and implement a high performance system and environment for our elite athletes.
