Ross Taylor likely to be shafted from the captaincy?

[ohnoitsyou]

The obviously exception to this is of course Phlegm who thinks Taylor is a better captain because he's from CD.

fixed

 

[Zinzan]

It was the handling of the media that was worse.

Just be honest and we won't care that much. The situation was that it was clear that Hesson was lying.

This

McCullum the better captain.

But the still handled it like a bunch of ****s.

& This

 

[Flem274*]

fixed

I see no problem with that logic.

 

[Hurricane]

Why are we suddenly saying Brendon is better I hope it is just not because of this test. Ross won two away test matches and I am convinced we would be in the same position in this match with him as skip provided that Brendon had gone down the order to 6 under his captaincy as well.

Both are fine as captains and I remember controversially saying at the time that most of the batsman in the NZ team would do a good job as captain. Brendon's "success" in this series is due to personnel changes specifically getting two openers who have performed (Ruthers more at the beginning of the series) and someone other than jeetan patel being the spinner.

Where Brendon deservers a ton of credit is in the one day arena where we have gone from sucking to being decent again.

 

[African Monkey]

Although he handled the Taylor situation poorly, it did show that Hesson is prepared to make the tough decisions. He also is responsible for giving Fulton another chance when everyone thought he had lost the plot, and also McCullum is batting where he should be and now we have a much better balance to our batting lineup.

He may be hated by most due to the way he handled the Taylor situation, but he's also done a lot of good things for the side and I wasn't a fan of his after the way he treated Ross Taylor so credit where it's due.

 

[thierry henry]

tbh aren't we almost at a point where we can say that both Taylor and McCullum might be reasonably good captains? And both bat far better with the responsibility? Pretty good position to be in really.

Way back when they were first choosing between the two I firmly believed that Taylor would come into his own as captain while for McCullum it would just be amping up an already inflated ego which did nothing for his batting. Glad to say I may have been right about Taylor and wrong about McCullum.

 

[wellAlbidarned]

All been said pretty much. There's no way of impartially judging if McCullum has been better than Taylor would have been, but he's done a good job. The far more important change has been the individual performances, especially the batting which is fairly irrelevant to captaincy.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Still to early for me to make up my mind. Some shocking decisions and performances in South Africa offset some positive signs over this recent series.

We'll see where we stand after the series in England.

 

[hendrix]

TBH I think there have been more important things that have been going on for NZ.

For a start, Allan Donald, Damien Wright and Shane Bond have forged a professional attack with a bit of depth. While there's still noone who could take over from Southee or Boult if they're injured, there are about 4 or 5 players who are genuinely contending for the 3rd seamer spot and who are getting better, not worse. More importantly, they have instilled an attitudinal shift. The things Southee was saying after a disappointing first day in Wellington were a perfect example of this. Not once did he blame the pitch, the ball, or the conditions. He simply said they didn't get it right and that they'd have to do better on day 2 (which they did). I've noted before that this was in complete contrast to what the likes of Finn were saying after day one in Eden park ("they were lucky that e went past the edge a few times" etc). Notably, these are not the types of things that England were saying a few years ago; they were professional.

I think some of that attitudinal change is leaking over into the batting. Fewer victims of circumstance, more people willing to accept responsibility.

 

[Bahnz]

McCullum's captaincy has been (barring the decision to bat first at Cape Town) very good. In particular, he's really backed his bowlers, and in that respect I think he does have an edge over Taylor's captaincy. There were a number of times I cursed Taylor for only fielding 2 slips when the ball (or the batsman) was new. No such hesitancy from McCullum, and it's generally worked well so far.

Of course, McCullum still hasn't won a test as captain yet...

 

[NZTailender]

Watching bits of it on TV today, often saw McCullum buzzing all over the place, full of energy. Seemed like he had a big plan or a lot of small ones, and was keeping the intensity up. Liked it.

 

[honestbharani]

If RT is back to his best as a batsman, that is when NZ will really start to be at their best. And when they get Jesse Ryder back. I really hope they go on to become a good team.. At least their CW fans deserve it.

 

[Flem274*]

Was going to joke last night that we should try not to any more management **** ups after a reasonable series and well this is not ominous at all.

Former New Zealand cricket captain Ross Taylor has admitted he is still not comfortable in the Black Caps team environment following their dramatic series draw with England yesterday.

Taylor, dumped from the captaincy and replaced by Brendon McCullum in December, was questioned by RadioLIVE this morning about his return to the camp after opting out of January's South African tour.

"I'm looking forward to the next tour," he said. "I wouldn't say I'm as comfortable as I would like to be, but yeah, I guess time will tell. At the moment I'm just enjoying the success of others."

Taylor was then pushed to elaborate on his feelings and revealed there is more to the captain-coach saga than the public know.

"There's a lot of things that have happened. Over the next couple of weeks or months things might get told but, right now, it's probably not a great time to talk about it."

Since the messy handling of Taylor's stripped captaincy, the former captain has received huge public support from crowds all around the country after returning for the English series.

Taylor's comments sharply contrast with the image portrayed after his century against England in the one-day international in Napier five weeks ago.

After announcing himself back on the international scene with his seventh ODI century, Taylor said "he felt like he never left" and that "things are going fine".

It's clear there are issues still lingering from the fallout, but Taylor quickly deflected attention to the success of the drawn test series with England.

"As one of the senior batters, it's nice for others to come in and score some runs, something I haven't done very much in a New Zealand team is have to wait a couple of sessions to bat. Hopefully I can start getting used to that trend," he said.

"We've always had the talent, it's just marrying that together and playing consistent cricket. We've got a good nucleus of young players who are getting more experienced now. Time will tell. There are definitely good signs for the future."

Cricket: Taylor still not comfortable - Sport - NZ Herald News

I get the feeling that sometimes Taylor is just too blunt. Though tbf we don't know what these unknowns he refers to are so I don't think it can be said either way whether he should just stay quiet and try to move on for the good of the team or to speak out if he knows something that is critical to improving the management of the side.

 

[straw man]

Crap article. Taylor said virtually nothing, perhaps wasn't quite as good at deflecting the probing questions as he could have been, but there's really nothing there to deserve writing an article about.

 

[jcas0167]

Crap article. Taylor said virtually nothing, perhaps wasn't quite as good at deflecting the probing questions as he could have been, but there's really nothing there to deserve writing an article about.

He's becoming too much like his batting mentor Crowe, harping on and on. Just save for the book.

 

[Bahnz]

Would like to hear that interview. This quote in particular is unnerving:

"There's a lot of things that have happened. Over the next couple of weeks or months things might get told but, right now, it's probably not a great time to talk about it."

I'm not sure exactly what he's saying in that sentence. Is he still referring to what happened in the run up to, and immediate aftermath of his axing? Or to stuff that has transpired since his reintegration into the side? Either way, he should really just be shutting his trap right now, no matter how hard done by he's feeling.

I'm worried that Taylor is really isolated within the side. His two major boosters, Guppy and Dougeh, are now on the outer and may not be back into the side for some time. By all accounts he has little interaction with the batting coach and obviously virtually none at all with Hesson. That's not a good position to be in.

 

[Jezroy]

Watching bits of it on TV today, often saw McCullum buzzing all over the place, full of energy. Seemed like he had a big plan or a lot of small ones, and was keeping the intensity up. Liked it.

And he had a pulled hammy. Good obs.

 

[Jezroy]

He's becoming too much like his batting mentor Crowe, harping on and on. Just save for the book.

Starting to think that now. He must realise how much support he had from the public about the situation. I had a lot of sympathy for Rosco, but now it's time to flush the dunny and move on, or put up or shut up.

Will make a great book though.

 

[Jezroy]

Would like to hear that interview. This quote in particular is unnerving:

"There's a lot of things that have happened. Over the next couple of weeks or months things might get told but, right now, it's probably not a great time to talk about it."

I'm not sure exactly what he's saying in that sentence. Is he still referring to what happened in the run up to, and immediate aftermath of his axing? Or to stuff that has transpired since his reintegration into the side? Either way, he should really just be shutting his trap right now, no matter how hard done by he's feeling.

I'm worried that Taylor is really isolated within the side. His two major boosters, Guppy and Dougeh, are now on the outer and may not be back into the side for some time. By all accounts he has little interaction with the batting coach and obviously virtually none at all with Hesson. That's not a good position to be in.

I wouldn't worry about Taylor being isolated within the team - have been careful watching the team come off the field through this test series, and he is usually talking to/low fiving/laughing with somebody. By management, you can't really see that, so that's another matter.

Regarding Guptill, we shall see the attitude towards him when he is ready for ODI's and T20's. I can understand him being overtaken in tests, but he is a huge asset for the shorter forms. Regarding Dougeh, he is still around the side, so I wouldn't worry. If there was any conspiracy there, he wouldn't have been called back in.

Regarding the info Taylor is "sitting on", it actually feels like when NZC were sitting on the Bond letter ("more info"), and they were heavily criticised for that. Rumour I hear today was that Bob Carter actually agrees with Taylor on the version of events, and is really pissed that he was brought into the whole thing at all.

 

[straw man]

Would like to hear that interview. This quote in particular is unnerving:

"There's a lot of things that have happened. Over the next couple of weeks or months things might get told but, right now, it's probably not a great time to talk about it."

I'm not sure exactly what he's saying in that sentence. Is he still referring to what happened in the run up to, and immediate aftermath of his axing? Or to stuff that has transpired since his reintegration into the side? Either way, he should really just be shutting his trap right now, no matter how hard done by he's feeling.

I'm worried that Taylor is really isolated within the side. His two major boosters, Guppy and Dougeh, are now on the outer and may not be back into the side for some time. By all accounts he has little interaction with the batting coach and obviously virtually none at all with Hesson. That's not a good position to be in.

Both fair points. Dumb for Taylor to say "things might get told" but I take it more as letting his guard down a little foolishly rather than anything sinister. Does need to keep mouth shut on the issue from now on. Still not worth writing an article over though.

Agree that he may be quite isolated in the side at present. Hope not though. I don't really care if there's a few personality clashes or groups in the side as long as they pull together on the park.