Secrets of Hesson’s Black Cap revival

Tim Wigmore explores the spectacular climb by New Zealand up the world rankings

On January 2, 2013, New Zealand were bowled out for 45 in Cape Town by South Africa, the lowest Test score since 1974. In the preceding six months, New Zealand had lost both their coach and captain: John Wright resigned after a power struggle with New Zealand’s director of cricket John Buchanan; and Ross Taylor subsequently quit as Test skipper after being sacked as ODI and t20 leader. A cricketing nation defined by solidity and unity had descended into a motley rabble.

Three years on, New Zealand have become the most fashionable team in world cricket, playing with effervescence and unbridled joy, an uber-professional outfit with a healthy dollop of amateur spirit. The upshot has been a record run of seven Test match series unbeaten and an intoxicating run to the World Cup final.

Mike Hesson has been the quiet man driving New Zealand’s transformation. Softly spoken, a self-described “pretty boring bloke” and a man who eschews the media’s glare, Hesson is easily forgotten. Yet the story of New Zealand’s uplift begins with his appointment as coach in July 2012. Within weeks Hesson pushed for Brendon McCullum to become limited overs captain instead of Taylor, making his recommendation to the board official days after Taylor scored 142 and 74 to secure a series leveling win in Sri Lanka that November.

So poorly was it handled that New Zealand Cricket apologised to Taylor for “the manner in which events have unfolded”. Taylor briefly stepped away from the national team. But all the acrimony was to prove worth it, for out of it was born the most fruitful player-coach alliance in international cricket today: Hesson and McCullum.

“When you’re in a job like this you have to make really tough decisions. As long as you can refer back and make sure that whatever decision you made was in the best interests of the team, then it’s far easier to justify. There’s always trying times in any coach’s career,” Hesson reflects. “I’ve got a good working relationship with Brendon and we’ve also got a really good senior player group contributing at different times.”

One reason they combine so well is both are in agreement that players need to be empowered. “They have to make decisions in the middle. A big part of what we do as support staff is try to give them as much support as we can, so when they’re out there they’re capable of making decisions,” he says.

In an age when international cricketers dominate the coaching ranks, rare indeed are Test coaches who never played first-class cricket. At 21, Hesson, playing for Otago A, earned a contract as a pro for a club in Cambridgeshire and “out of necessity” had to coach, too. Such was his relish for the role that, within two years, Hesson had abandoned playing to become Otago’s coaching director, working under Glenn Turner. He had already become the youngest to gain a Level 3 New Zealand Cricket coaching qualification.

His journey since has been an eclectic one: he coached Argentina, returned to Otago for six fulfilling years as head coach, and then became Kenya’s coach after the 2011 World Cup. The experience was harrowing: Hesson’s family fell victim to an attempted car-jacking and a grenade exploded near his house in Nairobi. After 11 months, security concerns led him to resign, yet Hesson talks with gratitude of how the experience in Kenya helped his development as a coach.

“I loved it and loved the players – a really good group of guys, really keen to get better. It’s a struggle in terms of facilities and there’s quite a small playing group, so you had to make the most of everything you had and had to be adaptable,” he says. “I’ve been lucky enough to work in different countries around the world and been taken out of my comfort zone many times.

“For any coach, if you want to challenge yourself you have to make yourself really uncomfortable and I certainly did that travelling to Argentina and Kenya and learning different languages. Those sort of things help to evolve you as a coach.”

Within six months of his return, Hesson became coach of the Black Caps at the startlingly young age of 37. He has adapted to the role, recognising how Test cricketers require less intensive work on technique than developing players. “You have a lot of specialist coaches – 10 or 11 staff and a squad 15 players. I don’t do as much hands-on coaching as I have in previous jobs.”

While a lack of international playing experience has added to his challenge, Hesson is not the sort to be easily fazed. “If you become a coach and you’ve had a very good playing background, maybe you have a bit more of a honeymoon period,” he reflects. “If you can’t pass on the knowledge that you have it doesn’t matter whether you played 100 Tests or none. The player will make the decision whether they deem you to be useful or not. That’s the art of coaching – making yourself as useful as possible. I’m quite happy to be judged on how I coach because it’s been a long time since I played.

“Once you make coaching your career, coaching your own country is the pinnacle. It’s one that I thoroughly enjoy, but it’s challenging,” he says. “As head coach you have to make sure everything’s ticking over nicely, and you fill the gaps when it’s required – my job is continually building relationships with players and making sure they’ve got the support they need and the skills around them to get better.”

For Hesson, no detail is too small: he organised a trip to the Melbourne Cricket Ground four months before the World Cup final to prepare New Zealand for the prospect of playing there. He has also worked extensively with other team sports. “Every team coach I’ve talked to, we have similar issues. In a group of 15 or 20 or 25 you’ve got a whole heap of characters, a whole heap of different individuals. A big part of what you work out, looking at other sports, is that they have the same issues.”

Hesson attributes New Zealand’s success to improved depth and the environment that has developed around the side.

“We’ve got good cricketers in all different parts of the game when perhaps in the past we’ve had one or two we’ve now got a lot more of that. We’ve got good competition for places, which in the past we haven’t had.

“And we’ve got good support staff and the players trust the support staff, and really enjoy working with them. Combine them all together and you’ve got a good chance,” he says.

“Our selection has been very stable – we’ve had some real consistency in that over the last few years and that’s been important in terms of players playing for the team rather than perhaps having to look after their own spot. That’s made a difference.”

Now a trip to Australia awaits: only one New Zealand side, the Richard Hadlee-inspired team of 1985, has won a Test series across the Tasman. Hesson admits that “the players were initially a little apprehensive” about the prospect of playing the third Test at Adelaide with a pink-ball under lights, but believes New Zealand can beat Australia.

“It’s exciting for this group to test ourselves against our big brothers across the ditch – it’s a big challenge for us. We’ve prepared well, but we also know that Australia in their own backyard are particularly difficult to beat – so we know we’re going to have to play well.”

History once again beckons for Hesson’s New Zealand history, and of a rather less ignominious sort than that one in Cape Town.