June 09, 2007	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 23, 1428

CHRISTCHURCH, June 8: Former Indian coach John Wright, who recently declined a lucrative Cricket Australia job, could be offered an important position in New Zealand Cricket (NZC) establishment.

Newly appointed NZC Chief Executive Justin Vaughan is keen on Wright's involvement in NZC in some capacity and he has already spoken to him.

“He is obviously a very talented guy, very knowledgeable and we'd love to have him. He's extraordinary. To be able to have managed Indian team with their huge egos and drive performance in that environment was remarkable,” Vaughan said.

Though, he did not reveal kind of job Wright would be offered but said he was delighted on former kiwi opener's turning down of CA offer to head its Centre of Excellence at Brisbane.

“That's good news isn't it. I haven't had chance to meet with him properly yet. Hopefully within next few weeks we can see what his thoughts are.

“But I need to get a more organizational – wide view of what areas John might be able to input into and then have a discussion,” Vaughan said of Wright who guided India from 2000 to 2005.

After years of remaining away from home for various assignments in other countries, Wright is now back in New Zealand and said recently he would want to spend time with his family now.

While turning down CA job citing his desire to be with his family, Wright did not rule out a possible call up to coach New Zealand team.

“Who knows? I wouldn't rule anything out,” he was quoted as saying by NZPA.

Current coach John Bracewell's contract runs upto next month and is up for review.

“There is board meeting in about 10 days where I want to talk about process. We will then have about six weeks until John is off contract and it would be great if we could run that process until then to give us some certainty,” Vaughan said.—Agencies