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New Zealand celebrate winning the World Test Championship
New Zealand won the inaugural World Test Championship in 2021

New Zealand inspired England to change their limited-overs cricket. England are trying to get their Test team back to their former glory.

The appointment as England's new Test head coach is for someone who captained New Zealand from 2012 to 2016 His home country rose from eighth to first place in the world rankings. They won the inaugural World Test Championship and reached the number one spot for the first time under Kane's leadership.

New Zealand reached the finals of the past two one-day international World Cup and the T20 World Cup.

The smallest of the 12 Test sides, they have managed it all with a population of just five million.

The formula, what is it? What could England learn from it? There are five factors that have underpinned New Zealand's transformation from a team that wasn't very good to one that is very good in all three formats of the game.

1. Governance that puts cricket first

Three New Zealand cricket players admitted to smoking marijuana during their tour of South Africa in 1995. Stephen Fleming said that more than half the squad were involved.

A governance review is something that doesn't promise much change.

All 13 members of the old New Zealand Cricket board were drawn from the country's six provincial associations. The Hood Report suggested a board of paid administrators who would be the best people for the job. The board voted themselves out of existence.

The best interests of the game in New Zealand were what the NZC was given the power to consider. The new board quickly innovated to popularise cricket, developing shorter formats to increase participation. The game Cricket Max was first played in 2003 and is a good example of the kind of game Twenty20 will be.

The All Blacks were part of that group. It's still an outlier in cricket. Reports calling for independent governance have been rejected by Cricket West Indies. In England, major changes need to be approved by an unwieldy vote of the England and Wales Cricket Board's 41 members.

2. Professionalising the domestic game

Domestic players in New Zealand were semi- professional in 2000. In 1995 the members of the national squad became professionals. Many players left the sport because they were not paid enough.

A fixed pool of money was negotiated by the New Zealand Cricket Players Association. It was the beginning of professional cricket in the country.

The country's unprecedented depth is due to the fact that 116 cricketers in New Zealand are professional. Matt Henry, who took 7-23 against South Africa in February and was player of the match in two of his last three Tests, wasn't picked against England.

The domestic game has been professionalised. Domestic coaches used to work only in the summer before 2001.

"The characters you could pick were pretty much people who were in jobs that could afford to take two or three months off, so clearly you weren't always getting the best people."

The treatment of coaching is like a serious career.

3. Improving domestic infrastructure - and pitches

The sport's infrastructure has been improved by the NZC.

In 2002-2003, the domestic matches were played at 24 different grounds, with the six provinces criss-cross the country, playing games in small towns.

Hesson says that many of the venues did not have the facilities to help develop players.

The 'warrant of fitness' was introduced in 2005 after the NZCPA pressed the NZC. The quality of training and practice facilities has gone up.

It has changed the quality of pitches in New Zealand, which used to be green seamers, giving batters little experience of building long runs.

These are now more suitable for batting than they were previously. The average in New Zealand domestic cricket has been higher than anywhere else in the world and the closest to the average in Test cricket.

4. An enlightened attitude towards T20

The launch of the Indian premier league in 2008 made it possible for players from outside Australia, England and India to make more money in foreign T20 leagues.

Many countries didn't see this reality. Until 2015, England was not interested in the Indian premier league. In order to be eligible for the national one-day team, players had to play in the domestic 50-over tournament, even though it clashed with the T20 league. Weakened sides were picked by the West Indies.

South Africa's top cricket player retired from the sport. He wanted to play a combination of lucrative T20 tournaments and major internationals, but couldn't because he wasn't able to pick and choose.

New Zealand dealt with the new reality in a smart way. Their policy of allowing players to miss low-key internationals to play in T20 league has ensured that they have been at full strength for the games that matter most. They would end up with players retiring earlier if they tried to limit players' participation in the league.

The NZC has a T20 competition. Other countries have tried to create their own versions of the game. The Global T20 League cost Cricket South Africa over 11 million dollars.

New Zealand is the only full member of the International Cricket Council that has not tried to create a T20 tournament built around new teams. The board did not overextend themselves in pursuit of a market that isn't there.

5. A culture that puts the national team first

Pope had never been in the top three in a first-class match. England didn't think to ask, which is indicative of how counties and the international side don't always work together.

The national side and domestic teams have a more collaborative approach. Domestic selection for the national team was influenced by Hesson.

He called the Northern Districts head coach to ask if BJ Watling could bat in the middle order. Watling became New Zealand's best Test keeper.

Hesson wanted Tom Latham to bat in the middle order in one-day cricket in the same way that he would play in New Zealand's run to the World Cup final.

A combination of history and geography has created a culture in which the six districts are tasked with furthering the interests of the national team before anything else.

Developing international players is part of each coach's key performance indicators and a portion of their salary is paid by NZC. Full access to local training facilities can be obtained by players who live in one association but play in another

Domestic sides have accepted that their fixture list is being trimmed for the better. NZC reduced their domestic first-class programme from 10 rounds to eight in order to invest more in their A-team programme.

New Zealand has a great culture. It may be the most difficult to duplicate.

They are the co-authors of Crickonomics.