Sir Richard Hadlee has questioned Ross Taylor’s response to his sacking as New Zealand captain and believes he should have played on after the fall-out rather than take time away from the game. Taylor, who was relieved of the captaincy after the Sri Lanka tour despite drawing the Test series 1-1, opted out of the following trip to South Africa saying he needed a break from the international game. He will return to the New Zealand side for the Twenty20 series against England which starts on Saturday and is also in the one-day squad. Barring any dramatic change in events, he will resume his Test career next month.
In Taylor’s absence, New Zealand were crushed in the Tests against South Africa, including being bowled out for 45 in Cape Town, and also lost the Twenty20 series, although they fought back impressively to take the one-day contest.
Hadlee, while sympathising with the poor handling of the situation, would have preferred to see Taylor move on quickly from losing the leadership and return to the ranks immediately. “I find it very interesting how Taylor reacted. In some ways I’m a little disappointed that Taylor decided to exile himself for a period of time,” Hadlee told ESPNcricinfo. “If you fall off the horse you get back on it, and I can’t imagine an All Black rugby player who was captain then was replaced not make himself available to play again as soon as possible. “Clearly Taylor had been affected in some way and needed to get his mind right. It was his call, but I’m not sure it was good thing because when he gets back into the side it’s going to be quite an uneasy period for him, and other team-mates, knowing that he walked away.” Hadlee, though, added his voice to those unimpressed by the handling of the whole situation, which saw Mike Hesson, the New Zealand coach, tell Taylor before the Test series in Sri Lanka he wanted a change of captain but, it later emerged, only in the limited-overs formats. Taylor has recently met with Hesson for the first time since losing his position and is ready to move on, though he admitted that the relationship will take time to develop. “There were clearly mixed messages, which have been well documented,” Hadlee said. “Taylor had clearly been hurt and offended, perhaps not so much by the decision but how it came about because it was done before the first Test. That decision should have been made in the review after the tour.” Hadlee would have been comfortable if New Zealand had gone down the split-captaincy route now used by England, Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. But, despite the circumstances of the change, he sees Brendon McCullum as someone with the right qualities to lead New Zealand and does not think he should be judged too harshly on the Test performances. “At the moment Brendon McCullum is doing all forms and clearly struggling in the Test team, but I think that is more to do with resources available rather than issues with him personally,” he said. “He has shown his true colours, especially as a leader, in the one-day format so that is pretty encouraging.” Of greater concern for McCullum, according to Hadlee, is that he works out what sort of batsman he wants to be in the longer format. After being elevated to opener, partly due to the lack of other options as much as his suitability for the position, he has largely shelved his natural attacking game to try and set a more cautious tone for his team-mates but that may not be making best use of his ability.
