So Stephen Fleming has decided he will be the spokesman for New Zealand cricket team matters.

Good on him.

That's exactly the way it should be.

The captain, and there is no viable alternative to him on the cricket horizon, should be the spokesman for the side.

New Zealand sport for too long has been bound up in a coach cult where the personality of the team organiser has been greater than those whose job it is to perform the deeds out in the middle.

Historically, the trend can be traced back to the arrival of Fred Allen as All Black coach.

After generations where coaches were faceless and anonymous, even if they were former All Blacks, Allen was a breath of fresh air on the coaching scene.

He brought colour and humour to the position, as well as a hardness of character that appealed to the New Zealand psyche. He became a natural contact for journalists with his perception and wit.

His approach continued through Ivan Vodanovich, Jack Gleeson and Eric Watson.

Other sports came to the party.

Athletics coach Arthur Lydiard and rowing coach Rusty Robertson were similar characters to Allen.

Suddenly, the coach cult was alive and well.

At times the whole concept has threatened to over-ride the sport itself.

The divisions created when Alex Wyllie, John Hart and Laurie Mains all became bigger than the game they were supposed to be coaching, the human conflict threatened to over-ride the game out in the middle.

New Zealand Cricket never adopted the coaching principle until 1985/86 when Glenn Turner became the first inhabitant of the position.

In cricket, more than most other sports, it is the captain who has to make the choices in the middle. He is out there for two hours at a time and is expected to decide the tactics and changes that need to be made according to the circumstances of the game.

That coach David Trist has faded into the background of the New Zealand Test team with Fleming taking control is fair and reasonable.

What more should the coach be than a sounding board, a mentor and an adviser for the captain and players?

If technical assistance is required, he can work out the logistics of getting people involved who can best assist the team and he can organise practices in liaison with the captain.

By taking greater control of the situation in the New Zealand side, Fleming is reflecting a greater maturity in his thinking on the captaincy.

It is the way Steve Waugh operates with Australia, Shaun Pollock in South Africa, Sanath Jayasuriya in Sri Lanka, Nasser Hussain in England and Sourav Ganguly in India. Ask most people who the coaches of the respective countries are and only the diehard cricket enthusiast could tell you.

All Fleming has to do with his increased leadership role is ensure his own batting reflects the responsibility he has taken on. Then, when this New Zealand team is back at full strength, the full Fleming qualities may at last be seen.

© CricInfo