Wellington, Dec 27 (ANI): New Zealand skipper Daniel Vettori has said Chris Martin is the key in the Black Caps’ bowling attack after the retirements of Shane Bond and Iain O’Brien, and admitted he wants to keep the 35-year-old bowling at test level for as long as he can.

Vettori made it clear that Martin will shoulder the pace bowling responsibility for some time yet after the loss of Bond and O’Brien.

“The key for us now, in many ways, is Chris Martin. I think there has to be an emphasis on getting him to play as long as possible,” Vettori told the Sunday Star-Times.

“He has done such a good job over the past few years and has been leading the attack well in Shane’s absence. If Daryl Tuffey can continue his good, recent work, and the Tim Southees and the Brent Arnels can develop under him, we’ve got a good chance of coming up with something pretty useful,” he added.

Vettori said the best possible outcome of losing bowlers of O’Brien and Bond’s calibre was that New Zealand’s emerging young fast bowlers learned from their efforts and understood what made them successful, Stuff.co.nz reports.

Vettori said Bond’s loss would be felt keenly but that, because the team was familiar with life without the often-injured Canterbury paceman, he was confident they could adjust.

“It would be nice to have an outright tearaway but to be fair, apart from Shane we haven’t really had one. I don’t even think Sir Richard Hadlee fell into that extreme category of pace. We’d love to have someone like him but we have to accept it’s a rare occurrence,” Vettori said.

Vettori pointed out that many highly successful fast bowlers lacked the extreme pace of Bond. (ANI)