New Zealand National Cricket Team is entering a new chapter as Gary Stead the long-serving head coach has officially stepped down from coaching the Black Caps in white-ball formats. The 53-year-old confirmed on Tuesday that he will no longer lead the team in T20Is or ODIs citing the need for a break from the constant travel and a desire to spend more time at home.

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While Stead is stepping back from limited-overs duties he's still undecided about continuing with the Test side. He plans to take the next few weeks to reflect on whether he wants to reapply for the red-ball coaching role.

“I’m looking forward to getting away from touring life for a while and having a think about my future,” Stead said.

“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 a head coach across all formats.”

Stead took over as head coach in 2018 following Mike Hesson’s departure. During his tenure New Zealand reached the finals of three major ICC tournaments: the 2019 ODI World Cup, the 2021 T20 World Cup, and the 2025 Champions Trophy. Before that he even coached the women’s national team to the 2009 ODI World Cup final.

Bryan Stronach NZC’s chief high-performance officer praised Stead’s legacy:

“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.”

He also mentioned that NZC hasn’t locked in a structure for the future just yet:

“At the moment, we haven’t 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.”