Time to move on, time for coach Bracewell to quit : Martin Crowe

Kingston, Jamaica, Apr 26 (UNI) New Zealand's failure to break the World Cup semi-final jinx is likely to cost coach John Bracewll his job.

Already Stephen Fleming has announced his decision to quit as a captain of one day team and now there is a growing demand that Bracewell should also own responsibility and step down.

Former Skipper Martin Crowe is of the view that Bracewell should follow Stephen Fleming's footsteps and step down because the team was inadequately prepared for the World Cup campaign.

''You need to move on to fresh ideas because the game is moving on very quickly,'' Crowe was quoted by media as having said.

Crowe added that he was disappointed the team did not learn any lessons from the earlier 215-run loss to Australia and five wicket defeat to Sri Lanka in their Super Eight league match at Grenada last week.

''They fall into doing the same PR speak and trying to put a positive spin on things. But the Australian game was diabolical and that was such a crucial match,'' he said.

Crowe expressed surprise at how key players Shane Bond and Jacob Oram had been ''rested'' for the game against Australia in the Super league. ''What are you doing eating a dodgy fish curry that's going to take you out of the game the next day? ''They needed Bond, they needed Jacob Oram. I don't care about Oram's bruised heel. When you've got seven or eight days to play, you get out there and play what are going to be the three most important games of your career,'' Crowe, who led New Zealand to the 1992 semi-finals said.

''They didn't front up, they backed out and they just said they had their eye on the Sri Lanka game. Well, they did not have their eye on that because as we've seen, they just didn't perform as well as this well-groomed Sri Lankan side,'' he concluded.

UNI