New Zealand Cricket to review India whitewash

Wellington:

New Zealand Cricket has launched a review of one of its national team's worst form slumps but Daniel Vettori's role as captain is not under threat.

The New Zealand team has just returned from India where it was beaten 5-0 in a five-match one-day series by an under-strength Indian team.

The series loss, following a 4-0 drubbing weeks earlier by Bangladesh, has taken New Zealand's latest losing streak to 11 matches in one-day internationals. It is now rapidly approaching its worst-ever streak of 13 losses in one-dayers in the mid 1990s.

New Zealand Cricket chief executive Justin Vaughan said the national body would take several days to review the Indian tour and to consider changes ahead of the World Cup beginning Feb. 19.

Vaughan told the New Zealand Herald he "wouldn't have thought" replacing Vettori as captain would be considered.

"We need to go through a proper review and talk about what options there are to help the side improve, but I'd be hard pressed to believe the captaincy would be one of those issues," he said.

Vaughan said he would talk with Vettori, team manager Dave Currie, coach Mark Greatbatch and performance director Roger Mortimer over the next few days.

Greatbatch's roles as coach and selector and the appointments of Currie and Mortimer, who come from non-cricketing backgrounds, have been hotly debated by the New Zealand media. Many New Zealand commentators have called for Greatbatch's replacement with former India coach John Wright, citing his experience in conditions on the sub-continent where the World Cup will be held.

Vaughan refused to speculate on what changes, if any, might be considered ahead of the World Cup.

"If we can see a clear case for that (making changes) then it's something we would have to consider. But it is getting pretty late in the piece," he said.

"The danger is obviously that significant change could sometimes be extremely unsettling. It doesn't mean to say you can't do it, but you need to go in with your eyes open."

Vaughan indicated that the appointment of Wright, a former New Zealand opening batsman, to a coaching role was unlikely.

"I understand people's desire to see him attached to the Black Caps because the New Zealand public loves John, he's had a proven international record and the Black Caps aren't traveling very well at the moment," he said.

"But we are comfortable with the process we went with around the appointment of Mark and the way the team is operating with Roger and the others."