Since his retirement from international cricket last year, former New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming has rejected two plum-coaching offers, one believed to be England.
Stuff.co.nz quoted Fleming as saying that two of cricket's leading nations had approached him to take over as coach one a year ago, one in recent months but he had turned both down.
"I was flattered to be offered, and I spent a lot of time looking at both teams," Fleming said.
"They had really good opportunities in world tournaments I stayed true to my plan of being out of the game. It came down to the fact it wasn't my time and I was trying to force the decisions. It really did interest me," he added.
Although Fleming refused to name the teams, but one was likely to be England, which 12 months ago replaced its coach, Peter Moores, with former Zimbabwe batsman Andy Flower.
Fleming says a coaching career could be five years away yet.
"As a past player, you are not automatically qualified to become a coach. I'm very aware of that. Part of my development with Chennai [the IPL team he coaches eight weeks a year] is to understand my shortcomings as a coach and see the changes I need to make.
"If I get another couple of years, I can see if it is what I want to do and if I would be any good at it," he said.
In his frank interview, Fleming revealed why he retired from Test cricket after losing the captaincy. He admitted that he had wanted to captain the team for one more series, and may even have stayed on for another summer as a player if he hadn't been dumped.
Contradicting former selection convener Sir Richard Hadlee's version of those events, he said while he understood why he was dropped as captain, he felt the process was "messy and wrong".
A challenging adventure with the corporate world
Fleming, who launched a company called Digital Publications after his retirement, has said his involvement in the corporate world has been challenging, but he finally understands how business works after twelve months.
Fleming began 'Digital Publications' with fellow former Black Cap Richard Petrie, and the company holds the New Zealand licence for a next-generation online publishing product.
"Some of the meetings I've had, and the situations I've been in, have been so challenging, so stimulating, I've been really tested and had to work so hard that I've been going home at night absolutely knackered," said Fleming.
"I'm not just talking cricket strategy all the time that's not mind-numbing, but I know it too well. I was dealing with things like setting up a company, registering, insurance indemnity, and I was going home every night absolutely cooked," Fleming added.
Earlier, Fleming also had a boutique player-management firm, but he wanted his main employment to mark a significant shift away from cricket. So, he had launched Digital Publications after buying the local licence from Neil Maxwell.
He also admits that it took six months to learn the business before he brought on Petrie to handle sales.
Fleming further said that several major corporates are involved with his company.
"The thing in our favour is the recession, as people are now willing to look at new strategies to communicate," he added.
Though traditional e-book products, where entire publications are uploaded online, have been around for some time, Fleming emphasized that his company is a step beyond, as it offers a quicker, less clunky, fully interactive product which can be downloaded to view offline later.
