End of an era?

Well,Stephen Fleming's decision to resign from the ODI captaincy following New Zealand's 81 run loss against Sri Lanka in the 1st Semi-Final of the 2007 Cricket World Cup signals the end of an era. An era in which one Fleming held the reigns of captaincy for over a decade,being the father figure of a team which never quite boasted of world-class performers or superstars that other cricketing nations could boast of. But the man in charge,with his acute thinking and aggresive cricketing mind,did reform his team from a bunch of 11 players to a team which started winning matches purely on the basis of teamwork and collective efforts rather than individual brilliancy.

In his decade long captaincy record,Fleming lead New Zealand in 217 ODI's,winning 98 and losing 106. The decision to resign from the ODI captaincy was made so that he could concentrate on his batting and improve his individual performances.

However,if given the opportunity,Fleming says he would still like to be at the helm of affairs in Test cricket,while continuining to play as a pure batsman in ODIs.