Despite distancing himself from the job barely two weeks ago, Kent's director of cricket Graham Ford will be interviewed this week for the post of coach to the New Zealand Test side.

Ford, the former South Africa Test coach who turned down the opportunity to manage India last year, finally conceded on Wednesday that he has been approached by the New Zealand Cricket Board and offered an interview.

During a break in Kent's penultimate LV Championship game of the season in Liverpool this week Ford said he had spoken with Kent chief executive Paul Millman on Monday and informed him that he would be going through the interview process.

The interview, which will be conducted by way of a computer conference call, will be conducted by ex-Kent coach John Wright, who is now high performance director for the Kiwi board, together with board CEO Justin Vaughan, Heath Mills and Stephen Boock, who have gathered in Christchurch as the interview panel.

Ford is generally seen as the frontrunner for the job to replace John Bracewell from a short list of four that includes Matthew Mott (New South Wales), Andy Moles (Ex-Warwickshire and Northern Districts) and Dipak Patel (Ex-Worcestershire and NZ Under-19 coach).

However, Ford insists he his generally happy in his role at Kent, content to be working with the county's existing management structure and is going through the procedure to see what New Zealand may have to offer.

He said: "I thought they had their man to be honest. It would be a massive step in my life and at this point it's unlikely that it's something that I'd be charging off to do.

"I'm very happy with the set up here, I'm working with a fantastic cricket management team and captain. Those relationships have developed well and are going nicely.

"Certainly I have no firm feelings at this point of wanting to head off in any other direction."

Meanwhile, Kent skipper Rob Key has written the ECB apologising for making his views on the August pitch panel hearing in Durham public and now considers the matter closed. There will be no disciplinary hearing.