Argentina national coach and player, Hamish Barton, will be leaving for New Zealand at the end of April to take up the position of National Coach Development Manager with Cricket New Zealand. Barton will be leaving Buenos Aires after almost five years at the helm of the Argentine national team, and his new job in New Zealand will focus on the development of NZ cricket coaches at all levels, from grassroots level right up to national elite coaches.

Barton, who arrived in Argentina on the recommendation of the previous coach and fellow Kiwi, Mike Hesson, has been instrumental in putting Argentina, as a playing nation, on the cricket map, especially with their sensational performance at the WCL Division 3 tournament in Darwin, Australia in 2007. At this event Argentina stunned the cricket world by finishing second to Uganda, and gaining promotion to Division 2. Although life in Division 2 proved tough, and was short-lived, Barton had certainly succeeded in taking the South American country to the forefront of the world's imagination...something Afghanistan have done to even better effect in recent months.

"The four and a half years in Argentina have been an incredible experience, and invaluable in terms of my development as a coach and a person," Barton reflected. "Although it's naturally sad to be leaving Argentina, I am obviously honored to have been offered this role by New Zealand Cricket and am looking forward to getting stuck in and assisting to develop quality cricket coaches in New Zealand. It's also a fantastic opportunity for me in terms of a career future in cricket."

"I would like to thank everyone in the Argentine cricket community for there support, and especially I would like to thank the players and management personnel in the national team for their friendship and commitment over the last four and a half years."

After qualifying to play for Argentina after serving the obligatory period of residence, Barton made an immediate impact on debut in November last year, scoring an unbeaten 99 against Canada, in a match where Argentina almost snatched a famous victory over the recently qualified World Cup participants, eventually losing a thrilling contest by one wicket. Barton hopes his career move may not spell the end of his new international playing opportunities.

"In terms of carrying on representing Argentina as a player in the future, I am very keen to do so, but I will have to wait and see what the new national coach has to say about that!"

The Argentine Cricket Association will now begin a recruitment process to find a replacement, but President Ricardo Lord is adamant that this will not be done in a hurry.

"Our priority is to find the right person, someone who like Hamish, and Mike (Hesson) before him, became a part of the Argentine cricket family, and who quickly understands the unique challenges and demands of cricket in Argentina," he explained. "We will be using the winter months as a recruitment period, to evaluate what we need, what our strategic priorities are, and the aim is to have someone in place by the start of our next domestic season, probably October or November."

Lord also expressed heartfelt gratitude to Barton for the magnificent job he had done over the previous years.

"Moulding a national team has been a long process, and it remains a difficult one. We have very few players to choose from, and all of them have work and family commitments, so it can be frustrating. But Hamish showed the way how to get the best out of the players, he was professional in everything he did, and was a top class coach and person that we will struggle to fully replace, but will be a great asset for New Zealand cricket."

"As disappointed as we are by his departure, we owe him a massive thank you for all the hard work he has put in and the success he brought, and we wish him nothing but the best, for his future career in New Zealand, and naturally we hope to see him play in a blue Argentina shirt for many years to come."

Barton will relocate to Christchurch, New Zealand, with his Argentine wife, Maria Ines, to start with Cricket New Zealand on May 11th.