Hi gREVUS
Good to hear from you.
For the blackcaps a three person selection committee has been used for the past ten to twenty years. At some points only two were effectively on it.
The coach is a member of the selection committee because, as you point out, his career rides on who is selected. He can be outvoted and or asked to compromise on the selection decisions. But given the small number of people on the committee usually he will have a great say and usually would imagine they would try to come up with decisions all three members are happy with after a discussion.
Usually a group is capable of better complex decisions than an individual can make is the theory. But the group has to gel and get along well and not be dysfunctional.
The committee also largely decides the role each player will have as well. IE who will open and what batting position the player is being selected for. So not just who plays.
On tours the committee is not there. So the game day XIs are chosen by the coach and the captain (Kane).
"It is my assertion that the head coach has to be responsible as the leader of the off field and on field components of the team. Therefore losses and wins are both accrued to him."
You could be right. I don't have any definite thoughts to counter that assertion. Other than making the head coach responsible appears to produce hit and miss results. When you have a Bellamy you are thrilled. When you have a
Kearney you have to live with him for 2 or 3 years often before his results catch up with him. So perhaps there is a way that is less dependent on finding an all star coach of which is there is a very short supply.
The blackcaps just won the world test championship with their selection system and ranked number one in the world in tests. And made the last two ODI world cup finals. So their system is working better than the Warriors. However their is more complexity to it in that the blackcaps get all the best new zealand juniors as they don't opt to play for other teams. In fact the blackcaps from 1995 onwards revamped, apparently, their junior pathways program and the current blackcaps class were all produced by it: Kane, Ross, Tim, Trent, Latham, all childhood star players
You asked about rep level and not international level in cricket? At provincial first class level my understanding is that the coach picks the side by himself.
When I was a cricket club captain I picked the side with the aid of selection committee chairperson. His input usually rubber stamped my decisions except once:
We had 12 fit high quality players for saturday and I wanted to drop the guy who always showed up a late as an example to the team (he would show up ten minutes before game time after we had all warmed up). The chairperson insisted he play as he was a good bowler and said we would be light on bowling. The decision was unpopular but it led to that bowler getting into form and then winning us the big game game at the end of the year. So worked out for the best and proved to be a good decision that I would never have made myself.
