Taylor has responded well since making his comeback

Former New Zealand all-rounder Sir Richard Hadlee has become the latest cricketer to voice his remarks about the recent captaincy dispute involving Ross Taylor, head coach Mike Hesson and New Zealand Cricket (NZC), saying that he believes Taylor’s return to the national side after taking a prolonged break would have been one of the hardest things he has had to have faced in his international career.

Taylor gave up the captaincy after New Zealand’s tour of Sri Lanka due to the fact that NZC officials, along with Hesson told him that he would no longer be in charge of the limited overs squads.

However, instead of remain as skipper of the Test side, Taylor stepped down from all three leadership positions and wicketkeeper batsman Brendon McCullum was named as his successor almost immediately.

Taylor missed New Zealand’s trip to South Africa, but returned for their home series against England.

During Taylor’s absence, New Zealand were battered left and right during their Test series against the Proteas, but managed to mount an impressive comeback during the ODI series, which they ended up winning 2-1.

While Hadlee sympathises with Taylor’s frustrations of having been forced to give up the captaincy, he admired the former captain’s fighting spirit.

“I find it very interesting how Taylor reacted,” Hadlee told ESPNcricinfo. “In some ways I’m a little disappointed that Taylor decided to exile himself for a period of time.

“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 clearly stated that he was unimpressed with the way Hesson handled the captaincy issue, but since then both Taylor and Hesson have had a meeting and agreed to let bygones be bygones, but the ex-captain did admit that his relationship with Hesson would still take some 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.”

The former New Zealand all-rounder supports the split captaincy route many of the major international teams have started taking and believes that McCullum is an excellent replacement, especially given the fact that he has a vast amount of experience in all three formats of the game.

“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.”

The main problem Hadlee believes McCullum is facing in Test cricket is whether to be an aggressive batsman, who looks to play a quick innings, or whether to be a more fluent batsman, who takes their time to score their runs.

“The big problem Brendon is facing at the moment is how he, himself, plays the game as a batsman,” Hadlee said. “Does he open or drop down the order? Does he play aggressively, take high risks, which if he fails can set a bad example or take a more circumspect role that goes against his instincts? He’s caught in between with how he should play but that is what the selectors have left the left him with.”

Now that Taylor’s episode has been resolved, all eyes are back on troubled opening batsman Jesse Ryder, who earlier last month stated that he was planning to return to the national team by June or July this year.

Ryder was dropped from the national team in March last year after getting into a fight at a South Africa hotel bar with another gentleman.

Since then, Ryder has not represented the national team at all, but he did play for the Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League (IPL) last year and plans to do so this year as well.

Ryder has also signed a contract with Wellington and has already caught the attention of the national selectors with his outstanding performances in both the Plunket Shield and HRV Cup.

Hadlee is pleased to see Ryder cleaning up his act and has no doubts that he can become an instrumental part of the national team in the years to come, but he noted that NZC should not tolerate anymore controversies or bad behaviour.

“When Jesse is ready to come back that will be great for our game, but the most important thing he needs to do is obey a set of rules and protocols,” Hadlee said. “If you are going to break them it doesn’t set a very good example, if Jesse can get away with things. We can’t have any more controversy. If he’s willing and able to do that he’ll be a great asset to our game.”