Fleming's achievement was to fuse difficult personalities

Writing in the New Zealand Herald, Adam Parore offers his tributes to his former team-mate and skipper Stephen Fleming.

"There was a hard core of players in the New Zealand team, strong-minded individuals who needed some handling. Think of Chris Cairns, Dion Nash, Craig McMillan, Nathan Astle, Chris Harris and yours truly ... The couple of years preceding his appointment were turbulent. Things had been difficult when Glenn Turner was coach, but Fleming won the respect of the players."

Parore, who had earlier criticized the selection of Jesse Ryder, saying that international cricket has no place for fat men, offered his congratulations to the young man. " I tip my hat to Jesse Ryder. He copped plenty of flak from me, and others, when he was chosen to play England, but he came in and did exceptionally well in Hamilton. He took the criticism, kept his mouth shut and let his bat do his talking. It's not easy to go out and play in that manner in an ODI. Ryder gave a pretty strong response to those who'd doubted whether he was ready. Good luck to him."