Glenn Turner has plenty to get on with at his home in Wanaka.
The unwanted selector has hens to feed, rats to poison, plants to prune, there is a golf course just down the road and, of course, a wonderful lake.
Sounds idyllic, really. It is just hard to imagine a summer without the former New Zealand captain and coach making a major contribution.
For the past six years, Turner has served the sport as an independent and free-thinking national selector. His forthright opinions have not always sat well with management but he has always been respected for his knowledge.
But in July, Turner and fellow selector Lance Cairns found themselves out of a job when New Zealand Cricket made the decision to reduce the old three-man selection panel to a new two-man team headed by Black Caps coach John Wright.
Mark Greatbatch kept his job initially, appointed as the interim national selector manager until NZC could make a permanent appointment.
Last week, on Friday to be exact, the same night the All Blacks played their opening game of the Rugby World Cup, NZC issued a press release announcing Kim Littlejohn had been appointed as the national sector manager.
Very sneaky; may as well have made the appointment in the middle of the night, for the amount of scrutiny the controversial appointment attracted.
Why were Turner, and the likes of Greatbatch and Ken Rutherford, overlooked for the relatively unknown Australian, whose resume includes a lengthy stint as Bowls Australia high performance manager?
It seems hard to fathom.
Perhaps it is New Zealand Cricket's hopeless addiction to experimentation, or maybe it was time for a change.
Turner's critics would say he had plenty of time to make a difference. It is a fair point but the question is how much say did Turner actually have, especially during the Daniel Vettori era, when from the outside it appeared as if Vettori called most of the shots.
How often were Turner and Greatbatch left to front the media to explain certain selection decisions which Vettori had made unilaterally?
Quite often, according to an insider.
The decision to appoint Littlejohn did not come as a surprise to Turner, who in a release said he expected as much after reading the job description.
"I felt that it did not cover what I believe is necessary to take full part in selecting and developing the Black Caps," he wrote.
"The position appeared to be experimental and more about an assistant collecting data and coming up with some performance measures, along with office administration skills. The job description preferred the applicant to have postgraduate qualifications in sports management or business management, which if followed, automatically cancelled out most people with what I believe are the necessary qualifications for an international selector.
"Nevertheless, I took up the opportunity to express what I believed was important when selecting cricket teams. In particular, trained independent eyes - free from conflicts of interest - ones that have experience and the art of talent identifying.
"I conveyed that I would only be interested in a position which was inclusive when it came to making decisions, where egos and self-interest were set aside.
"I needed to find out whether my skills would be used. They have been rejected, so we are probably better off without each other."
Turner preferred to let the issue rest with his statement when the Otago Daily Times phoned for comment.
However, Turner has been around a long time and has seen a lot of change. If you wait long enough, the bus eventually returns. He is not ready to give up NZC yet and has been reassured the national body is still keen to utilise his skills.
Let's hope so. Failing to tap into Turner's knowledge would be a monumental blunder.
