Hyderabad:

New Zealand Cricket further stated that he would take a few weeks to decide if he wants to apply for the Test coach, red-ball format. New Zealand head coach Gary Stead will step down from his role from the white-ball formats, the team's social media accounts revealed on Tuesday, April 8.

Under Stead, New Zealand won the inaugural World Test Championship (WTC) in 2021 and whitewashed India 3-0 in India later in 2024, marking it the New Zealand Test team's greatest-ever victories in Test cricket. They reached 2019 ODI World Cup final as well which they lost on less boundaries scored margin.

Gary Stead suceeded the Mike Hesson as New Zealand's head coach after the latter's resignation of in 2018. His contract was renewed twice due to his exceptional consistency with the men's national team. Stead had his contract renewed twice, in 2020 and 2023.

"I'm looking forward to getting away from touring life for a while and having a think about my future," Stead said. "My focus has been on finishing the season strongly with a lesser experienced team. The past six to seven months have been particularly busy with relatively non-stop cricket action since September. I now want to evaluate my options but still feel I have coaching left in me, albeit not as Head Coach across all formats."

"The next month will give me the opportunity to discuss the situation more with my wife, family, and others. I'll be in a better position to know whether I want to reapply for the Test coaching position after this time of reflection," he added.

NZC Chief High-Performance Officer Bryan Stronach praised Stead for his time with the team. "Gary's results have been very impressive over a long period, and we're very comfortable giving him some time to collect his thoughts and mull things over."

"At the moment, we don't have any strong preference for either a split-coaching role or a sole appointment who covers all three formats, and we're unlikely to be clearer on that until we see who's putting their name forward."

The advertisements for the coaching position will happen "within the next week or so," said a New Zealand Cricket media release.

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