New Zealand coach Mike Hesson talks about his long association with Brendon McCullum, whose leadership helped New Zealand cricket grow
Melinda Farrell 19-Feb-2016Brendon McCullum walks into an indoor cricket centre in Otago. He is six years old and he has something to prove.He has tagged along with his brother, Nathan, and his father, Stuart, a respected wicketkeeper-batsman. They practice on the periphery of a match and catch the eye of one of the players, a slightly built 13-year-old. The teenager notices the two small boys and watches with interest. They are younger and smaller than everyone else but their competitive spirit sets them apart, particularly the little brother. He refuses to be intimidated by the size of those around him. He throws himself into everything he does, he clearly has talent, and he wants to win.The thoughtful teenager doesn’t realise as he looks on, but in years to come he will form a partnership with this boisterous little boy that will transform cricket in New Zealand and influence the game across the globe.The teenager’s name is Mike Hesson.
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Hesson is the Felix Unger to McCullum’s Oscar Madison. The neat, quiet, bespectacled band manager to the popular, swashbuckling, entertaining rock star. And he’s about to lose his frontman.He leans back and smiles as he remembers seeing the McCullum boys for the first time.”They just got stuck in,” Hesson recalls. “Regardless of who they were up against, they were highly competitive people, and Brendon, obviously, being the younger brother, was probably the epitome of that. You’re a younger brother, you’re always trying to prove yourself, and you’re competitive in everything you do.”Nine years after that indoor session, McCullum was again demanding the attention of Hesson, who was by then the director of coaching at Otago. The same traits that had singled him out as a small child were still evident. He was playing with others who were older and more experienced, and as a 15-year-old was being selected for Under-17 and U-19 sides.
“I’ve been lucky enough over the last 14 years to grow up from a 20-year-old quite brash person to hopefully what I am today, which is, I believe, a better person”Brendon McCullum
“He was sort of ahead of his time,” Hesson said. “He was playing with kids a lot older than him, so I always felt he had a bit of a point to prove. He was obviously good enough. I just loved the fact he got stuck in.”But the thing I always really liked about Brendon is the fact that he always played to win. He wasn’t the conservative Kiwi who would try not to lose first, and then, if there was a chance of winning, try to win.””His attitude was certainly ‘Let’s look at how we’re going to win this game from here’ rather than the other way around.”That mindset was a key factor when Hesson, New Zealand’s coach, made the difficult, and at the time controversial, decision to replace Ross Taylor as New Zealand captain. While McCullum had proved himself as a wicketkeeper-batsman, there were many who couldn’t see past the tattoos, the brashness, and what they perceived to be a certain recklessness. McCullum didn’t look or sound the way people expected a traditional New Zealand cricketer to look and sound. But Hesson, after watching him develop through the years, felt he was the player and the man to lead the team out of a culture he now describes as “consumed by losing”.”At the time you appoint a captain, you like to think that his performances will improve but not necessarily straightaway,” said Hesson. “But I guess you make change for a reason.”I felt the team was ready for Brendon’s style of leadership and he certainly grew into that role, and he brought a real change in mindset into the team. No longer are we consumed by losing. We’re actually looking at things differently.”It took others a little longer to come around, and McCullum still attracts criticism for the mode of his dismissals and what some perceive to be his inconsistency. Hesson points to the fact that McCullum has been unselfish in moving up and down the order, giving up keeping and taking on any role the team required him to fill.Not your everyday New Zealand cricketer•AFP”As a batsman, when you stop keeping and you bat higher up, you need to contribute in different ways,” Hesson said. “And he’s certainly found a tempo during a two-year period there where he was able to really maximise his skill. Prior to that he was shuffled around and asked to do many different jobs that he perhaps wasn’t best equipped to deal with.”He’s taken on every role the team has required. Whether that’s keeper-bat or whether that’s opening the batting, which in Test cricket I don’t think has ever really suited his game. I think where he is now is right for the way he plays and he can still dictate a game batting at five,” he said. “His record in Test cricket is outstanding. For a keeper-batsman it’s world class. For a No. 5 his average is world class. The stuff in between, maybe not so much.”I think whenever you have someone who puts themself out there and is not consumed by losing, a lot of people almost treat that as a threat and he can become an easy target. Throughout his career he has been a target of many because he’s capable of brilliance, and with that you do get dismissals that at the time look carefree, but I can assure you they’re not carefree.”When he came in and he was a keeper-bat he would stand out because he could turn a game quickly. There were times when he’d get out and people would think that was reckless, but he was always trying to win the game and was playing the way he felt gave him the best opportunity.”And I think over the past few years he’s actually changed a number of the other players in the group as well to think in a similar fashion, not a matter of playing like Brendon but actually starting to think that ‘Hey, we can not only compete with these guys, we can actually beat them.’ So, rather than look at a puzzle and ask, ‘How can we not lose this?’ we’re actually turning it 180 degrees around and asking, ‘How can we actually win this game?’ And that is a major mind shift.”Hesson believes McCullum truly came of age as a captain during the first Test against India at Eden Park in 2014. New Zealand had lost three wickets for only 30 runs when McCullum joined Kane Williamson at the crease. Their 221-run partnership and McCullum’s innings of 224 were instrumental in the eventual victory.
“He wasn’t the conservative Kiwi who would try not to lose first, and then, if there was a chance of winning, try to win”Mike Hesson
“He came out and first of all sucked up all the pressure and then counterattacked in the way we know he can. The sign of a leader is not just about your actions around the group. It’s whether you’re able to step up on the park when you are in trouble, and I think in Test cricket that was probably the catalyst for him and he went on to make three scores over 200 that year. “The next one was, of course, the famous triple-century at the Basin Reserve. The memories of that innings were thick in the Wellington air last week during the first Test against Australia, making McCullum’s dismissal in the second innings difficult to stomach.”Everyone believed it was possible and that’s the beauty of the group,” Hesson said. “We’ve been in far worse positions than we were heading into day four before and we’ve managed to find a way to get out of it and Brendon, Kane [Williamson] and BJ [Watling] have been part of it. When Brendon got out in the last over of day three it was really upsetting because he’d done it before and I think we all believed he was capable of doing it again.”Whether or not Hagley Oval provides the setting for one last innings of derring-do, it seems fitting that McCullum’s international career will end here, with him wearing the “rancid” cap he has carried for 14 years.Plenty of eyebrows were raised when one of the world’s most explosive T20 batsmen announced he would retire just before his country’s campaign to win a World T20 – and Hesson admits he would dearly like McCullum to be there – but in light of the romance of some of those feted matches, it shouldn’t be surprising that McCullum has chosen the Test arena for his final appearance.”It’s nice to be able to go out in the purest form of the game, a game that means so much to cricketers who’ve played for New Zealand over decades,” said McCullum on the eve of his final match. “And to be able to do it in your home town, there’s an element of romance there as well and it’ll be nice. Hopefully we can get the result we want as well and go down to the local pub and have a few beers afterwards.”It is encouraging for New Zealand that Hesson, along with team manager Mike Sandle, will provide some continuity in the environment that has allowed McCullum to develop and thrive.Hesson on McCullum’s 224: “He came out and first of all sucked up all the pressure and then counterattacked”•Getty Images”[Mike Hesson] has been instrumental in the turnaround of this team,” said McCullum. “And Mike Sandle as well, who probably doesn’t get as many accolades as he should. Those two guys have reinvigorated cricket in New Zealand. They’ve allowed us to go out there and just focus on playing cricket and getting good structures and processes in and around the team.”I think their greatest tribute, not just in terms of their organisation, is the freedom that they give guys to go out and just try and push the envelope of their skills sets and try and reach the abilities each player has when they started growing up. Those guys have been phenomenal and the great aspect is they’ll be around for a while longer as well, and allow the next group of leaders to come in and have good solid support around them as they try and take this team to the next level, which I’m confident they will be able to do.”Hesson agrees that the next group of leaders is ready to step into the void left by McCullum but he admits he will miss the stability and equilibrium that the captain brings to the environment.”Every day he’s incredibly positive about where to from here,” said Hesson. “He’s very consistent in how he operates. Whether he’s got a hundred off fifty balls or he’s missed out, you won’t know the next day. He’ll turn up, he’ll train just as hard as he has previously and he’ll expect that of everyone else around him.”His influence over the past few years, in particular in New Zealand but also in other parts of the world too – it’s the smile on the face, the get stuck in attitude. The positive approach to the game in terms of doing things differently and trying to find a different way. His innovation.”McCullum has often expressed a view that international cricketers are merely “custodians” of the game and should leave the sport in a better place than it was when they found it. But it is perhaps a two-way street. Cricket has left its mark.”I’ve been lucky enough over the last 14 years to grow up from a 20-year-old quite brash person to hopefully what I am today,” said McCullum. “Which is, I believe, a better person. Everyone within the group, they would say the same thing about themselves as well.””You look at all the kids around in New Zealand now playing the game,” said Hesson. “And so many of them have been influenced in some way by Brendon. He’s had a huge influence on the game in this country.”
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It is a glaring, hot afternoon in Christchurch. The infectious noise of raucous laughter filters across Hagley Oval as the New Zealand players and staff play the game of kickabout – they call it spot – that precedes any training session.It’s just like the start of any New Zealand training session. McCullum – still smaller in stature than most of the others – is an irresistible presence. The tattoos spill out from under a T-shirt that seems to struggle to contain powerful arms. The cap is worn backwards, the sunglasses scream “cool”. He has a smile on his face. He is getting stuck in. He no longer has anything to prove but he still wants to win. This one, last time.Hesson is there, too, his slight frame almost dwarfed by a long-sleeved shirt that’s topped by a traditional white cricket vest. He wears his cap the right way around. The band manager and the rock star.It’s just like the start of any New Zealand training session but it’s also nothing like those that have gone before.The next time they train, the rock star won’t be there.You sense the void left behind will be huge.