Former captain Daniel Vettori is almost certain to miss New Zealand’s tour of South Africa later this month because he has not recovered sufficiently from a troubling Achilles injury. Vettori has not yet been officially ruled out of the tour by New Zealand Cricket, but his Australian Twenty20 franchise, the Brisbane Heat, said they had been advised that the all-rounder would be unable to play for at least six weeks.
“Dan had a setback over the weekend and despite his best efforts, he is highly unlikely to be ready in time for our … matches, which is very unfortunate for him, as we know how hard he has worked to be ready,” Heat General Manager Andrew Blucher said in a statement. “We wish him a speedy recovery and trust he is back playing soon.”
The Australian Twenty20 “Big Bash” tournament begins on Friday, while New Zealand’s tour of South Africa starts on Dec. 18 and runs until Jan. 25. New Zealand’s squad for the two test, three one-day, three Twenty20 match tour, had been expected to be named earlier on Wednesday but has been delayed until Friday as speculation swirls around the captaincy of Ross Taylor. Local media have reported that Taylor’s captaincy has been questioned by a group of players and that Brendon McCullum, who was a candidate for the job when Taylor succeeded Vettori after the 2011 World Cup, was likely to be named in his place.
Fairfax newspapers had reported that McCullum was expected to be given the captaincy of the limited overs side, while Taylor retained the test captaincy. Television New Zealand, however, reported on Wednesday that Taylor may not even go to South Africa and NZC Chief Executive David White, whose delayed return from an ICC meeting in Dubai was one of the reasons why the team announcement was pushed back to Friday, refused to answer questions about the captaincy. Media reported that White’s recommendation to the NZC board was required before a change could be made to the captaincy.
Taylor took to the social networking site Twitter to try to dampen down speculation. “A lot of speculation out there,” he wrote on his Twitter account. “I have heard from the CEO once. I haven’t made any decisions. At no time have I given NZC any … ultimatums about (coach Mike) Hesson or Me or South Africa.”
