WELLINGTON, Aug 10: New Zealand coach John Bracewell has said that Stephen Fleming is still a part of New Zealand’s One-day International plans despite being dropped from the 15-man squad for the Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa.

Fleming gave up the ODI captaincy after the 2007 World Cup and Bracewell said that he had been left out of the Twenty20 squad because his batting style wasn’t suited to the shorter format, and to give Daniel Vettori, the new captain, space to breathe for himself.

“As far as I’m concerned Fleming is still one of our best one-day batsmen given the way we play the game,”

Vettori hasn’t been named captain of the one-day side as yet but Bracewell said it was because New Zealand hadn’t named their team. “We’ve been grooming him for a while and Vettori has not done anything to dissuade us from thinking that he is a good captain.”—Agencies