Mark Richardson: Genuine motives ruined by approach
5:30 AM Sunday Dec 9, 2012
Michael Hesson is still finding his feet as a coach and needs support from his captain. Photo / Getty Images
Through all the animosity over the Ross Taylor issue, has anybody stepped back and actually thought that the right decision has been made?
Perhaps Taylor was not the leader the Black Caps needed. Results certainly point that way.
Yes, the way in which it was done is indefensible and, come on, does anyone expect fans to believe that Taylor was not earmarked to be gone from all forms of cricket? How could a meeting of such gravity be conducted without broaching the subject of Taylor staying on as test captain - if that was the desire from the outset? Especially with a test just four days away.
Even if that was right, how dare they use test cricket as a tool for appeasement? Two wrongs do not make a right.
Taylor has to take this on the chin if he is to be the bigger man. That said, he has every right to feel aggrieved at how it was done and I'll give him his one-tour grace to chill out. Then I pray that our best batsman is shown the respect he deserves when he returns because we sure as heck need him to return.
I hope NZ Cricket make a better job of that.
In time, Taylor may have developed into a good captain but unfortunately, the environment he was in was not conducive to development.
Stephen Fleming developed under a proven coach, a strong manager with a history of success and quality players to call upon. Taylor did not have that luxury and I believe this was only made more evident once John Wright left.
A rookie captain needs a strong coach. A rookie captain and a rookie coach are a hard ask.
Michael Hesson is still finding his feet as a coach and needs support from his captain. NZC just cannot afford to go through yet another coach search and so the relationship between the captain and coach needs to be synergistic. With Taylor there, it would not be.
So Brendon McCullum, in conjunction with Hesson, may be the best way forward. We just really did not need to lose Ross Taylor's runs to get that result.
With all this said, though, the team simply cannot use Taylor's leadership as an excuse for their own inadequacies. Too often the players have been allowed to look for scapegoats instead of looking within. Too often their voice has had too much influence. This had better not be another one of those times.
It's been messy but it's done and over the next few months, I will watch with interest at not only how the Hesson-McCullum axis operates but also how the administration motivate the previous leader to become just another worker.
Don't forget Taylor doesn't exactly have to work for us to make a decent living. Oh, and there's one other rather important group they may want to show some respect to as well - the fans. NZC needs to win them back over too.
Offering Taylor the test captaincy clearly was a patch-up job yet Hesson and his CEO David White continue to deny that this is the case. White's failure to discipline Hesson for this debacle and his inability to manage the situation promptly from a distance (or effectively once he finally got back here) means that he should be joining Hesson in a trip to Anywhere But Here. But instead our best performer is left in an extremely vulnerable position with no real choice but to walk. Infuriating!