Northern Districts Cricket is pleased to announce James Pamment as the new Head Coach of the SKYCITY Northern Knights.
Congratulating Pamment on his appointment, CEO Peter Roach said Pamment's new role brings "change, new ideas, but mixed with continuity" to the premier side, given his extensive immersion in Northern Districts Cricket in key roles over several seasons.
“We were extremely pleased with the quality and depth of the applicants for the role," commented Roach. "James was the outstanding candidate and brings with him great skills, strong values, and enormous drive and enthusiasm.
"We are incredibly excited that the best person for this position was already within our organisation. We put an enormous focus on improving our people and this is a great fillip for Northern Districts as an organisation.”
Roach added that “James has consistently achieved great success with individuals and teams, and we look forward to that continuing with the exciting group of players we presently have at ND."
A batsman for Auckland for several years in the 1990s, Pamment was appointed Assistant Coach of the SKYCITY Northern Knights at the start of last season - working under outgoing Head Coach Grant Bradburn, who stepped down in April.
"JP" has an extensive CV across his twin sporting passions, cricket and football. At national level he has been the New Zealand Under-19s Assistant Coach and has coached in the BLACKCAPS' training environment, focusing on fielding. Previously he was National Development Officer for New Zealand Football, a love he inherited from his father who was an England Youth international player. The younger Pamment, raised in Yorkshire, was himself on the books of Bradford City and Sheffield Wednesday in youth football.
More recently Pamment has worked as Northern Districts' High Performance Manager, Bay of Plenty Cricket's High Performance Manager and BOP senior rep team coach; and has coached Northern Districts A for five seasons. Less well known is that he also represented Northern Districts as a player in a handful of Cricket Max matches, after moving from Auckland to Mount Maunganui in the late 1990s.
Pamment is "delighted" at the prospect of building on the SKYCITY Northern Knights' strong record in past seasons.
"I'm really looking forward to the responsibility that comes with this opportunity," he said. "I feel it's a natural step for me. I bedded down some important experience in the four years that I spent working as a high performance coach here, and obviously I'm familiar with the players, but I'm very much looking forward to now being able to spend more time with them as individuals, and really get inside their heads.
"My coaching philosophy and style of leadership is my own and based on establishing strong relationships with the individual players first and foremost. I pride myself on that, and I'll enjoy working closely with the group of players at the forefront of our game."
Pamment will have the services of Bradburn at his disposal to assist with season preparation until September, while his first major assignment will start in June as Northern Districts finalises its contracted players for the 2013/14 season.
In the interim his coaching skills continue to be sought after at national level, with Pamment also working with New Zealand Cricket's high performance and White Ferns training squads over the winter.
*Article courtesy of Northern Districts - http://www.ndcricket.co.nz/
