Introduction
John Garry Bracewell (born 15 April 1958) is a former New Zealand cricketer who is the current coach of the Irish national team. He played 41 Test matches between 1979–80 and 1990, as well as 53 One Day Internationals. He was the coach of the New Zealand cricket team between September 2003 and November 2008. His brother Brendon also played Test cricket, and his brothers Douglas and Mark also played at first-class level. John Bracewell is the uncle of test representative Doug Bracewell and first-class representative Michael Bracewell.
Career
Bracewell scored 1,001 runs in Tests, and 512 in ODI matches, with late-order hard-hitting right hand batting, and took 102 Test and 33 ODI wickets with his right-arm off-breaks. He holds the record for the longest ODI career without scoring a half-century or taking a three-wicket haul. His Test career included one century – 110 against England on 7 August 1986. He scored four first-class centuries in all as part of the 4,354 first class runs during a career for Auckland and Otago. He took 522 first class wickets.
Coaching
Bracewell's approach to team selection has fallen under scrutiny during the 2006/2007 season. Despite levelling the home series with Sri Lanka two-all, New Zealand's top order batting has consistently displayed frailty, and this was most apparent after New Zealand compiled a dismal team total of 73 in one ODI during that series. Moreover, Bracewell has opted for a "rotation" policy within his squad for determining team selections, meaning the batting line-up has been shuffled consistently between successive ODIs. This has received criticism from local media who highlight that New Zealand Cricket is not currently afforded the luxury of a reserve pool of competitive international players, thus making the policy somewhat redundant.
Bracewell also controversially called Australian Fast-bowler Shaun Tait a chucker, and copped a lot of criticism from the cricketing community and also 'revealing' that Adam Gilchrist ducked out of the One-Day match in Hobart because of family issues but shortly, Bracewell withdrew these comments and issued an official apology.