The NZC have not been approached by the Kolkata Knight Riders regarding the possible appointment of John Wright as coach.

Reports in India suggest Wright is the preferred candidate to take over from Australian John Buchanan, who parted company with the Twenty20 franchise after a disappointing second season in the competition.

Wright, who is New Zealand Cricket's high performance manager and a Black Caps selector, coached India for five years from 2000.

Sources: Ganguly captain, Wright coach

He has close ties with former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly, who is tipped to replace New Zealand's Brendon McCullum as captain at the Knight Riders for next year's tournament.

However, New Zealand Cricket chief executive Justin Vaughan said: "We haven't had any approach from John and certainly we've had no word from India with regard to this.

"We've read the media stories and I suppose there is that historical link between Sourav Ganguly and John Wright. It's more innuendo than anything else."

Vaughan hinted that Wright coaching in the IPL would not necessarily be a bad thing, although the timing of next year's tournament could prove troublesome.

The 2010 IPL is scheduled to start in March, when Australia are due to tour New Zealand, meaning Wright's commitments as a selector would prevent him from being in India.

But Vaughan suggested Wright's position would be treated differently to that of the six New Zealand players contracted to the IPL who hesitated in signing their NZC contracts because of the scheduling clash.

Daniel Vettori, Jacob Oram, Kyle Mills, Ross Taylor, McCullum and Jesse Ryder eventually did sign and will miss part of the IPL season.

"It's a different kettle of fish," Vaughan told Radio Sport with regard to Wright. "We have an employment relationship with John which is great. He adds a lot to New Zealand cricket.

Knight Riders sack Buchanan

"But if you look at the broader sense there are international coaches around the world who coach in the IPL who learn new things and bring those back to their countries.

"We've seen the absolute surfeit of Australian coaches who are currently coaching in the IPL and you could argue it's been a positive thing for Australian cricket in general.

"Whilst we certainly get a lot of value out of John and he is a great contributor to New Zealand cricket, our eyes aren't blinkered to the fact that some form of New Zealand presence...in the IPL would not be a bad thing."

Vaughan said the schedule for Australia's tour of New Zealand had yet to be finalised but it seems likely that the Test series will be cut from three to two Tests.

He explained: "We've got some issues in that Australia can only arrive in NZ very late, far later than the Indians arrived last year.

"Also, the Australians aren't willing to play three consecutive Test matches like the Indians did last year. They have certain regulations around player rest.

"We're still trying to figure it out. We would dearly love to have a three-Test series against Australia but we do know that playing a lot of cricket in April just isn't really a viable prospect with the autumn weather in New Zealand."