Gary Stead reflects on his stint as New Zealand head coach

The New Zealand team has achieved some incredible feats from 2018 to 2025, which have made them a competitive team in international cricket. All of this happened when Gary Stead helmed the affairs as BlackCaps head coach in his tenure that came to an end of June 4.

The coaching tenure of Stead saw the New Zealand team win the inaugural World Test Championship in 2021 and whitewash India at their home for the first time. However, there were also some heartbreaking moments during his tenure as well, which include the 2019 ODI World Cup final loss against England. This was one of the most controversial finishes to a World Cup final, which saw the Kane Williamson-led side lose on a boundary count since the super over was tied. Stead has also opened up on the loss and how the team moved on in the end.

“I think no doubt there were frustrations in the group and in the team. I guess as a whole, you look at it, and it was an amazing game of cricket; I mean, the same number of runs scored by both teams over the game. I think it showed the evenness of the competition, and in some ways it’s sad that there has to be a winner and loser in that situation, but we were lucky in a way that we had to move on very quickly,” Stead told in an interview with Arvind Kalyana Krishnan as quoted by Cricblog.

“We had a series soon after in Sri Lanka that we had to get to, so that’s the thing with international cricket. The world keeps rolling on very quickly so whilst it was very, very disappointing, I think it was a good thing that we were playing cricket again pretty soon, and we could move on and look, time heals over that period and whilst still can be raw to talk about because I thought we played very well that day. You have to get on with it and accept that they were the rules on that day,” Stead added.

Rob Walter replaces Stead

The replacement for Stead has been announced, and it will be Rob Walter who will be taking the reins as the head coach of the BlackCaps. Walter has a lot of experience as coach and was last seen as the coach of the South African cricket team from January 2023 until 30 April 2025. The 49-year-old is now under contract with the Kiwis up until 2028.