The Black Caps are losing one of the longest serving members of their coaching group. Luke Ronchi, the team’s batting coach since 2020, will leave New Zealand Cricket after the home Test series against India later this year to take over as head coach of the Melbourne Renegades in Australia’s Big Bash League.
The Renegades confirmed the appointment on Friday, naming Ronchi as their head coach for BBL|16. He will finish his work with the Black Caps through the India series in October, then join the Renegades in December in time for the new season.
It is the first full head coaching job of Ronchi’s career in a major domestic Twenty20 competition, and it comes after roughly seven years inside the New Zealand set up. He joined the coaching group as an assistant around the side’s run to the 2019 One Day International World Cup final, then took the batting role on a full time basis in 2020.
The years since have been the most successful stretch in the modern history of the New Zealand men’s team. Ronchi was part of the group that won the inaugural World Test Championship in 2021, reached two Men’s T20 World Cup finals, and recorded away series wins in India and England, results that had eluded New Zealand sides for decades.
Ronchi framed the move as a chance to test himself rather than a decision made against New Zealand Cricket. “Coming back to the national set up has been a dream come true for me and I’m immensely grateful to my fellow coaches and the players for the opportunity to work alongside them for all these years,” he said in comments reported by SportNation.
“It has always been my goal to try and help this team and the batters perform at the highest level and reflecting back, there have been some pretty memorable moments that I’m proud to have been part of.”
Speaking to cricket.com.au, he added that “the challenge of head coaching in the Big Bash and different parts of the world is exciting”.
Black Caps Test captain Tom Latham made no attempt to hide his disappointment. “He’s such a valued member of this group, certainly when he was playing but also after he transitioned into the coaching space too, so it’s disappointing to be losing a guy like Ronchs,” Latham said. “He’s someone who understands the environment and culture of this group and is a huge driver of that.”
That line about understanding the environment carries some weight. Ronchi is one of the few people in the coaching group who has lived the playing side of it recently enough to remember what it feels like, and his standing with the players has been built over more than a decade in and around the team.
He remains one of the genuine oddities of international cricket, the only man to have played for both Australia and New Zealand. Born in Dannevirke and raised in Western Australia, he played seven matches for Australia before returning to the country of his birth and going on to represent New Zealand in 114 matches across the three formats, according to New Zealand Cricket’s release when he retired as a player in June 2017.
He was a destructive wicketkeeper batter who scored a 51 ball century in the Sheffield Shield in 2007 and a 56 ball century in Australia’s One Day Cup, and he was part of the New Zealand side beaten by Australia in the 2015 World Cup final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Announcing that retirement nine years ago, then coach Mike Hesson said the team would “remember Luke fondly for the energy he created in the field and his selfless attitude towards the team”, adding that he was “one of the best glovemen going around”.
His coaching record has been built quietly in the background. He was interim head coach of the Black Caps for the 2023 tours of India and Bangladesh and the 2024 home series against Sri Lanka, took the head coach role for the Test tour of Bangladesh, and was batting coach during New Zealand’s Test series win in England. He also had a stint as interim head coach of the Auckland Aces in 2022, and in the Pakistan Super League he took Islamabad United to the playoffs in his first season in charge in 2024 before returning to the franchise this year.
Renegades T20 high performance manager Clint McKay said the club had been chasing a coach with exactly that profile. “Luke is one of the most highly regarded emerging coaches in world cricket and we’re thrilled to welcome him to the Melbourne Renegades,” McKay said.
Ronchi inherits a club that has been through a rough patch. He replaces Cameron White, who left to take the head coaching job at crosstown rivals the Melbourne Stars in place of Peter Moores. Ronchi’s read on the job was blunt enough about what he is walking into.
“The players have been through a difficult period in recent times with a lot of change so my focus will be on creating an enjoyable environment where our players can perform at their best, play an exciting brand of cricket and challenge for the title this season,” he said.
For New Zealand Cricket, the immediate question is who takes the batting role under head coach Rob Walter, and no replacement has been named. Ronchi will be around for the India Tests first, which gives the organisation a few months to sort it out. The Black Caps, meanwhile, are in the middle of a One Day International series in the West Indies, where they took a 2-1 lead in Guyana with a six wicket win.
What do you make of Ronchi’s move across the Tasman, and who should New Zealand Cricket bring in to replace him? Let us know in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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