Upon the retirement of Blackcaps coach Mike Hesson, there was a swell of appreciation and overwhelming success as many folk reflected on Hesson's tenure. Various winning record stats and other bits and bobs of the numerical variety were referenced, which in all honesty can not be argued with. Hesson coached the Blackcaps through a nice period of international cricket and he'll have a certain level of kiwi notoriety as the guy who coached the Blackcaps to a World Cup final.

Those familiar with the Niche Cache know that we've consistently gone out on a limb to highlight shenanigans with the Blackcaps and New Zealand Cricket; the type of shenanigans that surface scratching win-loss records don't quite account for. After sitting with this news of Hesson's retirement for a week or so, letting it simmer away slowly like a hearty boil up, I still can't convince myself that Hesson was above and beyond any other Blackcaps coach that has come before him.

That's led by my gut-feeling that this Blackcaps group could have been a lot better during Hesson's tenure, most notably in the Champions Trophy and well, any cricket outside of Aotearoa. Hesson didn't so much discover the world-class talents of Brendon McCullum, Ross Taylor, Kane Williamson, Trent Boult (all formats) and then to a slightly lesser extent Tim Southee, Neil Wagner and Martin Guptill, he inherited a group of kiwi cricketers that is as talented, if not more talented than any other Blackcaps group. And they were still a wee bit underwhelming.

Hesson's foresight and chummy-ness with McCullum brought about a crucial change in leadership, which resulted in that World Cup performance on home soil and for me that sums up how I feel about Hesson. On the one hand, Hesson had the kahunas to make a change and that change proved to be the right move, changing the course of the Blackcaps and their reputation (/marketability) around the world.

On the other hand, Hesson kinda fucked over King Rossco.

Taylor seems like a fairly nice bloke. I wouldn't say he's the nicest bloke in the world...

Ross Taylor, the NZ skipper was unhappy when an LBW appeal against Virat Kohli was turned down by the umpire. An elongated FUUUCCKKK from Taylor was expected. But, it was followed by a surprising Bh******odddd. Just when you thought that our captain would lose it, Kohli reacted in the coolest possible way.

But a fairly nice bloke.

Hesson did a lot right, but at the same time he could have done things better. This isn't a case of nit-picking at finer details either as many of the weirdness of Hesson's coaching smacked you in the face. It would be crazy for me to list them all here, just go back and read any Blackcaps content written by us over the past two years and you'll get the vibe. Then jump on our Facebook page and look at the reaction to that Blackcaps content and you'll find that our outlandish Blackcaps opinions, were largely supported by the public, who then offered their own outlandish Blackcaps opinions of a similar vintage.

I also appreciate that this was a difficult time for the Blackcaps coach as NZC embarked on their mission to destroy Test cricket, which was a weapon with much collateral damage.

Somehow ol' Hess dawg managed to hop between all three formats reasonably well, while pockets of the cricketing world move towards greater distinction in coaching and skills, between the three formats. The Blackcaps were forced to play an excessive amount of T20 Internationals - a format that probably won't be around in five years outside of a World T20 - and Hesson had to learn all the nuances of the changing cricketing world, on the go.
That ain't easy folks. Hesson maintained a solid Blackcaps level of performance across the three formats during a state of flux, chur to him.

Just save the yarns about how great Hesson was as a coach, because I'll counter right back with the fact that numerous players haven't got better under Hesson; the best players continued to be the best players and others haven't lived up to their potential.

Perhaps the most fascinating thing about all of this is the timing though and Hesson now leaves the Blackcaps a year out from the World Cup. Of course, Hesson has stepped down to spend more time with the whanau and that's honkidory, I'm sure the whanau would understand if Hesson set his sights on the World Cup and then gave it all up with a final hoorah on the biggest stage.

Given the lack of any actual planning for the Champions Trophy, having a coaching switch ahead of a World Cup and a different set of ideas, plans and opinions this close to a World Cup is similar, in a different way. The new coach has a year to suss out his best ODI team and the World Cup should be his main focus, as opposed to nailing a squad and style of play, then building into a World Cup as England have done.

Having said all that, I'm bloody excited for a new coach. There is a fantastic group of candidates in the mix and Aotearoa needs a coach who is capable and willing to usher in the new wave of kiwi cricketers, while also extracting the best out of those more experienced players. The seeds of incredible kiwi cricketing depth are there, now it's time for a new coach to manifest that and push kiwi cricket towards it's genuine potential.

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Peace and love 27.