Wynne Gray: Selector McCaw, no way

Let's say Daniel Carter had not landed that last kick in Sydney or, if you prefer, that the Convicts had scored from their last move of the test.

The bloodletting would still be going. The three-week intermission for the All Blacks before they set out to stop the rot against the Springboks in Hamilton would have seemed like three months for the players and selectors.

While we are on the move, indulge me and imagine one more thing: that the All Blacks, like the New Zealand cricket team, have altered their strategy and picked their captain as part of the selection panel.

So Richie McCaw would be part of a boggle-eyed group watching telecast reviews of their work and other candidates, and poring over statistics, theories and ideas about the side they should pick in Hamilton. It would be an extremely fraught time but in any change of strategy, you have to imagine worst-case scenarios.

The theory behind Vettori's elevation to this august cricket group, I gather, is that he is an automatic rock-solid selection and he needs to have a side in which he, as distinct from the selectors, has complete faith. It would be no good, for example, if he took the field with a bowling attack which did not match his plans.

McCaw is a certainty in the No 7 black jersey. No one is yet close to him though it does seem strange that the now-repaired Adam Thomson has not been recalled, or is it just that the selectors have veered away from that unusual idea of him being McCaw's understudy.

So if McCaw is a selector and captain, imagine the impact he would have on the panel.

Without doubt he has a great deal already. It would be staggering if he was not included ex officio in selection meetings and even more baffling if he was not asked his opinion.

The champion flanker has played 74 tests, he smells the rhythm and pace of test matches, he'll know which of his teammates is shirking some of the work or is massively underrated.

McCaw will also understand the dynamics of the team, those teammates who would crawl over jagged glass for their colleagues or others who might not be quite committed to the cause. He will sense the cliques, feel any disruptions, empathise with those who have personalissues.

But if McCaw was elevated to a post like Vettori's, if he was promoted to fifth selector behind Raewyn Henry, he would be left in an invidious position. Teammates would be a shade more wary of what they said, how they acted and behaved around him.

And the skipper would face rumblings of provincial bias. There would be drama.

While the dual captain-selector role might suit cricket where games can run for five days, the division of labour and responsibility between Richie and the Three Wise Men sits just fine.

And yes, they won in Sydney too.