Cricket World Cup: Ex-cop happy to keep team on a loose leash

Black Caps manager Mike Sandle, head coach Mike Hesson and captain Brendon McCullum have worked together to turn around the team's culture. Photo / Getty Images

It’s not cricket but police work prepared Sandle for manager role.

In a former life Black Caps manager Mike Sandle used police dogs to control wrong-doers. The man credited with helping to build a selfless, winning culture within the national cricket team hasn't had to set the dogs on any wayward cricketers "yet" but he does have a good few yarns up his sleeve from a 24-year police career that included a stint with the dog unit.

"They do like a few old dog stories," he says of the Black Caps, but when it comes to off-field behaviour there's seldom a need to unleash the hounds. Boundaries are loosely defined, with players expected to make sensible decisions without being mollycoddled.

"We trust players to make good decisions and we have to have a special type of person in the side to be able to do that," says the man players call Roman. "You can't have people that are selfish. You need people that are willing to give to the team."

Of all professional sportspeople, cricketers perhaps do it toughest on the mental front. Hundreds of days are spent away from home, competing at a game where the number of personal failures tends to outweigh successes. Managing the emotional waves is not easy.

"What [coach] Mike [Hesson] and I try to create is an environment where we show empathy, where we are supportive and are sensitive to players' needs," Sandle said. "We spend more time together as a group than we do with our own families. Everyone is going to have good times and harder times on tour and I'd like to think that we are all there for each other in the good times and the bad."

Above all, Sandle and Hesson preach a team-first ethos.

"It certainly didn't come overnight but obviously team first is a real focus. And we feel if the team is performing, individual milestones will take care of themselves."

A manager's main job is making sure a team's operational and logistical requirements are in good order. It's far from glamorous; not exactly the sort of job many aspire to. Sandle "just kind of fell into" team management when former coach Colin Cooper asked him to help out with the Taranaki rugby team. That led to a job with Pat Lam's Blues in 2011 and, when the Black Caps job was advertised in 2012, he thought he might as well chuck his hat in the ring.

"I entered it with quite low expectations because I didn't have a vast cricket playing experience. But I certainly love the game."

An early contender for the job was none other than Hesson, who instead opted for a job as coach of Kenya. Now the pair find themselves working together.

"I love working with Mike," says Sandle. "We both like to have good plans in place and that manager-coach-captain relationship is pivotal."

As good as he Black Caps have been over the last 18 months, no organisation operates without challenges. Sandle's police career has provided him with the perfect skill set to combine the somewhat disparate roles of logistics expert and sage counsellor.

"I used to see people in the good times and the bad in my old job as well. You learn to deal with people and learn that there is more than one way of doing something. All of those attributes that I had to display in the police certainly come to the fore in various stages in cricket as well."

Sandle is quick to point out that the transformation of the Black Caps has been a genuine team effort.

"A lot of people have contributed to where we are now. And we have got a lovely, great bunch of guys who just love playing for their country. It is just amazing the level of support we are getting."