The longevity of Mark Greatbatch as New Zealand coach will not depend on results, but on how well his relationship with Dan Vettori can prosper.
Indeed the only basis for the appointment of Greatbatch is the endorsement handed to him by Vettori.
It seems that Vettori couldn't - for some reason - work with John Wright, so Greatbatch was the only other alternative.
The fact that it came down to this predictable two-horse race makes it farcical the suggestion from Justin Vaughan that the cricketing world was scoured long and thoroughly for suitable candidates.
If so, then it further reinforces the view that the New Zealand coaching job is not exactly top of the pile. In the past week, I had heard the names of Darren Lehmann and Mickey Arthur as being in the running.
Clearly, they, and others, had a quick look at the overseas tours of the Black Caps leading up to the 2011 World Cup in India and spotted the salubrious venues of Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India on the menu and thought better of it.
Or maybe it is the difficult to suppress notion that the New Zealand players, through an overly vigilant players' association and a core of experienced performers with high self-importance, rule the roost anyway.
Without Vettori's sanction it is hard to substantiate the coaching claims of Greatbatch for such an august role.
His credentials are light on experience and come tarnished with a steep fall from grace at his last fulltime position at Warwickshire. Major dressing room fall-out being apparently behind Greatbatch's resignation.
I find this a bit odd as one of Greatbatch's strengths as a player, was to get others behind him with talk of 'passion', 'energy' and 'heart'. Undoubtedly, Greatbatch was one of the proudest Kiwi cricketers with whom I took the field.
But I felt with Greatbatch, that he lacked a certain deep, strategic knowledge of the game once the warm talk of the passion, energy and heart started to lose its fire.
The roller-coaster he rode was either flying high with everyone wanting to jump on board and follow his example. Or it was running low, the emotions simply worn out, the team's emotional state potentially, and sometimes fatally, falling with his own.
Greatbatch has 'street smarts' and this is shown in his ability to forge a rapport with his boss, Vettori. I am sure Vettori is impressed by the Greatbatch talk of passion etc.
Whether there is more depth to Greatbatch's cricketing acumen will be the key to gaining long-term respect from his captain.
Greatbatch has a deep love of the game of cricket that I can only admire. The fact that he has had knocks and hiccups along the way, but keeps wanting to be involved shows courage and a belief in what he can offer.
He will need all of that inner fortitude for sustenance during the next few months.