Ross Taylor, the former New Zealand captain, has openly disputed the coach Mike Hesson’s depiction of his exit from the leadership of the national side.
Hesson has maintained that in a meeting ahead of the recently completed Test series in Sri Lanka he informed Taylor that he should step aside as captain of the ODI and Twenty20 sides while retaining the Test captaincy.
However Taylor, who is missing the forthcoming South Africa tour in order to take a break from the game after the job was handed to Brendon McCullum, said that Hesson’s version of events does not match his own recollection of what took place.
“He said I wasn’t a good enough leader, that this team needs a strong leader and that I wasn’t a strong leader. If I wasn’t a strong leader why would he give me the Test captaincy?” Taylor told Radio Sport.
“He said ‘Ross, I am going to recommend to [NZC director of cricket] John Buchanan that we have a new captain for South Africa’. There was nothing in there about anything to do with a split captaincy.”
Taylor has maintained the first he heard about the possibility of his retaining the Test captaincy was following the conclusion of the Sri Lanka series, which was tied 1-1 after New Zealand won the final Test. Asked directly whether or not someone was lying about the episode, Taylor replied: “Definitely.”
Since his replacement by McCullum, Taylor has stated that he was not supported by Hesson after he replaced John Wright as the national team coach in July.
Taylor also reiterated his reasons for not joining the South Africa tour. “I don’t think I could have given 100%,” he said. “It has been a pretty stressful time for me, especially the last two or three weeks but the last five months have been pretty tough on myself.
“It’s still pretty fresh in my mind. I think I got straight back on the horse by not turning down the captaincy in Galle and leading the team to that victory … It would have been easy for a person in my position to just give it up there and then, but I decided that the best thing for the team was to carry on.
“The team will be better without me and all the distractions that have happened in the last couple of weeks.”
