Cricket: Hesson selects a loyal approach to team

Mike Hesson. Photo / Getty Images

Coach adopts a team-before-self culture by keeping faith in a core group of players even when form may dip.

As the New Zealand test cricketers seek to extend their record of undefeated test series to eight with a win against Australia in Adelaide, coach and chief selector Mike Hesson's selection loyalty ranks as a key component to their success.

Hesson (alongside his fellow selector - formerly Bruce Edgar, now Gavin Larsen) has used 29 players in a 30-test tenure which began against India in August 2012. Injuries can disrupt a team's rhythm and balance but, since the 1999-2000 season, Hesson has the second lowest ratio of players to tests (0.97) behind John Bracewell's 38 players in 43 tests (0.88) from 2003 to 2008.

Hesson's mantra is that medium-term faith trumps short-term form. Peter Fulton, Hamish Rutherford and Neil Wagner have benefited in the past, and Mark Craig is an incumbent example.

The off-spinning all-rounder was a surprise choice to tour the West Indies last year when he earned man-of-the-match on debut, and turned around struggling early performances in Pakistan and England to justify his place.

At Sharjah last November, he took a ground-best 10 for 203 and scored 65 runs following scrutiny in the opening two tests. He will hope for a similar scenario in Adelaide.

The test success of Hesson's sides (10 wins for 33 per cent) trumps Bracewell's (13 wins for 30 per cent) and he sits second since the turn of the century behind Denis Aberhart's 40 per cent ratio (six wins from 15 tests between 2001-03).

The Hesson and Aberhart eras share the benefit of strong captains, in Brendon McCullum and Stephen Fleming respectively, and players in their career pomp. Hesson has benefited from backing his core six - McCullum (30 tests), Trent Boult (30), Kane Williamson (29), Ross Taylor (27), Tim Southee (25) and BJ Watling (25).

Similarly, Aberhart, with fellow selectors Sir Richard Hadlee, Brian McKechnie and Ross Dykes, could call on Fleming, Chris Cairns, Shane Bond, Mark Richardson, Daniel Vettori, Nathan Astle, Craig McMillan, Dion Nash and Adam Parore.

That core of players drew away in Australia and Sri Lanka, won away for the first time in the West Indies, beat India at home, drew at home against England and escaped a bomb in Pakistan. Those eras can be contrasted with the Andy Moles, Mark Greatbatch and John Wright tenures when a greater ratio of players per test match was experimented with.

Professionalism, objectivity and effective communication anchor Hesson's pursuit of a team-before-self culture. By investing autonomy in his charges, he has built a team of fighters, as seen in Perth last week.

The key theme is building players capable of independent thought, enabling a sleeper cell of belief to awaken when it matters. Such characteristics make the Adelaide fixture a tantalising prospect.