Kiwis rope Stephen Fleming, Ian Bell and James Foster as coaches for New Zealand

The New Zealand cricket board has appointed three more coaches for the squad ahead of the world’s biggest cricket tournament, the ODI World Cup 2023, which will be hosted by India from 5 October. The board has appointed the team’s former captain Stephen Fleming and two former England cricket team players, the attacking batsman Ian Bell and wicket-keeper James Foster, to lead their squad in the upcoming tournament.

Stephen Fleming has given a phenomenal performance as the head coach of the most popular and successful Indian Premier League team franchise, Chennai Super Kings, for 15 years. Under his guidance, Chennai Super Kings has lifted the IPL title five times, 2023 being the most recent title win. James Foster has been an assistant coach for the IPL team franchise, Kolkata Knight Riders for a few years and has a good record as a coach. 

Head Coach Gary Stead on the latest appointments of new coaches

“I think Flem [Stephen Fleming] will be great for players on that side of it and also good for the staff as well. He’s got an immense amount of knowledge in that part of the world [India] and has coached in the IPL right from the start of the competition, so he’s coached in all those areas where we’re going to play in. So, it might just be the little one-two percenters you can get from that information that could tip the results on your side as well. If things go well you can pick up on some of those small things,” said Gary Stead. 

“James [Foster] will come to the World Cup; he’s got a lot of experience in the IPL with the KKR side and in an assistant coach role there he’s worked with video analysts, so will give us a lot of information, and knowledge for us to consider when we approach all the different venues in the World Cup,” added Gary Stead.