Auckland, July 17: New Zealand wicketkeeper batter Tom Latham is open to the prospect of taking white-ball captaincy following Kane Williamson’s decision to step down from the role.
Following New Zealand’s abrupt exit from the T20 World Cup in the Caribbean, Williamson has decided to opt out of his New Zealand Cricket central contract, resulting in the team being without a white-ball captain.
Having previously captained the team in Williamson’s absence, Latham is the leading candidate to assume the white-ball captaincy roles. The wicketkeeper has expressed his willingness to lead his country on a full-time basis.
“It would obviously be a real honour,” Latham told reporters on Wednesday. “For me it’s always been about trying to put the team first as best as possible and I’m sure they’ll have those discussions around what they want from a team point of view and certainly if I get the opportunity to do that it would be really special,” he said.Latham is not the only contender for the captaincy, as Test captain Tim Southee could also be considered for the role across all three formats. However, head coach Gary Stead said the management hadn’t reached the final stage of selection but Latham name was definitely in discussion.“It’s something that [selection manager] Sam Wells and I will talk about in the next little while.
We’re not at the stage of confirming it yet, so I don’t want to speculate whether Tom will be or not. But he’s certainly one guy that will be in discussions around that role.“The important thing is whoever is in place, we want in place for two to three years or so, leading to that next World Cup. That will be one of the important decision-making factors that we discuss,” the head coach said. (IANS)
