David Leggat: It is time for sleeves to be rolled up

John Wright. Photo / Greg Bowker

John Wright says he is grateful to New Zealand Cricket for giving him the opportunity to try to resurrect the national side.

If he can turn things around, haul them out of a dreadful slump, perform strongly against Pakistan, then play competitively and well in the World Cup to follow, it will be NZC who should be slapping both Wright on the back, and themselves for finally taking the step which seemed just plain obvious to many of the nation's cricket lovers.

As befitting one of his nicknames from his playing days - "Shake", so given for his bag-packing philosophy, as in shove things in and shake them about to fit - he will bring a different voice and emphasis as coach.

He was always a players' player, and remains someone for whom team, and by extension country, is all.

One of the perceived issues within the New Zealand setup is player power which, if you believe the drum beats, did for Andy Moles a year ago and remains an edgy topic.

The players have always denied this but there is a view that Wright and some of the current players might not be a jigsaw perfect fit. Wright said yesterday he'll bring no baggage into the squad, no pre-conceived views. It's a clean slate.

He has certain requirements - punctuality, training hard, being honest and the appreciation that the team comes first. Always. That doesn't sound too hard.

Wright was part of New Zealand's best era in international cricket, the 1980s, when the team went unbeaten through a decade in home test series, and was populated by some of the country's finest, spearheaded by Sir Richard Hadlee and Martin Crowe.

Times are very different, but he'll preach an onwards and upwards approach, demand the players make the most of their ability.

In that respect, it will be not unlike the man himself. Wright was not an extravagantly gifted opening batsman, but he worked his socks off and got handsomely rewarded for it.

Don't expect outlandish predictions, juicy quotes, vigorous verbal offensives. That's not his way.

"I'm too old to change," he quipped yesterday. Sleeves are about to be rolled up.

As he played, so will he expect of others.