Former Auckland reps battle for CD coach job

Dipak Patel. Photo / Getty Images

Former Auckland representative Alan Hunt is believed to be the leading contender in a close battle with Dipak Patel for the Central Districts coaching job after Dermot Reeve's departure.

The 51-year-old Patel should be the favoured candidate on paper although he missed out when applying for Paul Strang's Auckland job last year. Hunt, 50, does not have the same profile as Patel but is held in high regard by a number of current and former players.

Patel coached CD to three titles between 1997 and 2002 before current Black Caps coach Mark Greatbatch took over. Patel also coached the New Zealand under-19 team to two World Cups including a semifinal appearance in Kuala Lumpur in 2008. He is director of coaching at Auckland's Howick-Pakuranga club.

Hunt is a former premier captain at Howick-Pakuranga and still mentors some of their top players. The mortgage broker played 67 first-class games between 1980-81 and 1992-93 and has coached the Auckland and Northern Districts second XIs.

His most recent link to coaching was as assistant coach-manager of Auckland in 2007-08 under current Black Caps fielding coach Mark O'Donnell.

The coach will be on the road over 50 days of the summer and CD also want him to live in the province. Reeve lived in Queenstown and Sydney.

Others to have applied include former championship-winning Auckland coach Tony Sail and Mike Shrimpton, who mentored the White Ferns when they took out the 2000 World Cup at home.

Sail was granted an interview but pulled out. He wanted to commute from Auckland because his wife Pip (the Auckland physiotherapist) has just set up a business and they have children at Auckland schools.

Sail says he wants to have another crack at the provincial scene at some point after assisting in the Aces' HRV Cup campaign.

He'll "suck the lemon" on that ambition for now and continue as a teacher at Mt Albert Grammar School.

Shrimpton missed out on an interview but could still be asked for his input. He looks after the Sydenham club and helps with Canterbury elite winter training programmes.