New Zealand's Chief Selector and ex-Chief Exec of Wellington. A decent Medium Pacer for NZ, if I recall?
Of course, Jeets was a 'Wellington man', I wouldn't be surprised if that connection, was the 'door in'?
_"You can take the boy out of Atherstone, but you can never take Atherstone out of the boy !"
"The Bears and the (footballing) Foxes for ever !" _
Apparently, his nickname is The Postman because he always delivers.
Let's hope so!
Used to love his Far Side cartoons. Definitely an outside the box signing.
When you compare Larsen's CV to Simon Insley's (who apparently was first choice for the DoC job), it seems amazing we didn't go for him first. Insley had no Cricket playing background and only got into Cricket Management, through his Physiotherapy work. Larsen is a 'proper' Cricket guy, an experienced First Class and International player, with much longer (and more wide ranging) background in Management - the commercial side, contracts and team selection.
I'm quite excited by his appointment. He could be as good for us on the Management side, as his compatriot, McCullum is, Coaching England!
'The only great banker, is the Lickey Banker!'
He is extending the Kiwi influence that started in the 1940s and 50s with Martin Donnelly, Tom Pritchard and Ray Hitchcock and stretched more recently to Jeetan Patel, Brendon McCullum and Daniel Vettori (well, maybe not Vettori!).
And then there was that other Kiwi coach who made such an impact at the Club. What was his name? Badbatch, Grimbatch, something like that.
So what is Gavin Larsen's remit?
I always got the impression Farbrace was pretty 'hands on' with the playing squad, having a big say on contracts and recruitment (he's recruitment was poor). He took the Pathway seriously too I feel, we may not see the benefit of that for a few years though.
Will Larsen be similar? Or is it more of a commercial role now?
I wish him well.
And im just relieved its not Ashley Giles!