'It was definitely the toughest time of my coaching career' - Mike Hesson on axing of Ross Taylor as New Zealand captain

Mike Hesson’s journey as New Zealand’s head coach of the team wasn’t very smooth. Mike was subjected to a lot of hate and criticism for axing Ross Taylor as the Kiwi captain in 2012. Taylor stepped down from the captaincy of all the three formats of the game after he was asked to handover the limited-overs reigns to Brendon McCullum.

Recently, talking on the chat show, Hesson revealed that though he feels guilty for the way the things were handled, he doesn’t regret his decision of replacing Taylor as the New Zealand skipper. He also described that phase as the ‘toughest time’ of his career.

Speaking on ‘The Pod’, Mike said, ”It was definitely the toughest time of my coaching career. I keep going back to the reasons why I coach and many times I ask myself at night – am I making the decision for the right reasons …. because I think it’s going to make the team better?”

“It was a really untidy time. But I don’t regret the decision, (though) I certainly regret the fallout from it and the way people felt throughout it. I have a lot of empathy for what Ross went through and it was a really difficult time for the whole team. And we also had people within the environment being a little bit snakey around it as well in terms of trying to play both sides. I still think it was the right decision. Could it have been done better? Of course it could have.” Hesson added.

I had hate mail poured in the door, says Mike Hesson

Though Mike Hesson was brutally trolled, his decision of replacing Taylor proved to be fruitful for the Black caps. Under the leadership of Brendon McCullum, the New Zealand team won a lot of matches and also reached the finals of the ODI World Cup in 2015.

“I had hate mail poured in the door. I had faeces put on my front door at my house. It was a pretty horrible time and all I was trying to do was what I thought was right for the cricket team at the time. There were a number of people who didn’t know many facts, who didn’t know either Ross or myself, who were very opinionated about things … It was what I felt we needed to do to move the team forward.”, the 45-year-old added.

Mike Hesson stepped down as the head coach of New Zealand  in 2018 and is now associated with the IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore. He currently serves as the Director of Cricket Operations for them.