RCB Coach Mike Hesson travels back to New Zealand

In a daring escapade, at least 90 fishermen of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha stranded in Kasimedu and Royapuram blindsided Indian Coast Guard personnel and set sail on a 1,000-km voyage on the high seas to reach their homes on Sunday on 10 boats amid the nationwide lockdown and fishing ban. Chennai port authorities who manage the harbour and TN fisheries department didn’t have any clue about the journey.

Miles away, former New Zealand wicketkeeper turned broadcaster Ian Smith joined some illustrious former team-mates in receiving New Zealand Cricket's premier award for outstanding services to the game on Tuesday. Smith, who led Sky Television's cricket coverage for two decades and called the pulsating end to the Cricket World Cup final for a global audience in July, was presented with the Bert Sutcliffe Medal by NZC chairman Greg Barclay in a virtual ceremony. In other awards to kick off NZC's week of celebrating its high achievers, Wellington duo Sophie Devine and Devon Conway were named women's and men's Twenty20 Super Smash players of the year for their roles in the Blaze and Firebirds' march to the respective titles.

What a wonderful sight Airplane after spending over a day on a bus Bus to get to Mumbai airport. The staff on @FlyAirNZ  were simply outstanding – special thanks to Mr Narendra Modi & Jacinda Ardern tweeted and thanked the 45 year old who arrived back in New Zealand.  That man had   arrived here in the second week of March for the RCB’s camp which was to begin at the M Chinnaswamy stadium on March 21. With the IPL postponed, Hesson, the former New Zealand national coach, was stranded in the city following the lockdown announced on Mar 24.

With India entering the second phase of the lockdown, which is until May 3, the New Zealand government chartered three flights to repatriate their citizens from the country. Hesson was on the second flight which departed from Mumbai on Monday. On Sunday, Hesson, along with a few other compatriots made the 20-hour road trip to Mumbai to board the flight. On arrival at home, Hesson headed into a mandatory 14-day quarantine and posted a picture of the aircraft on social media. With the IPL season put off, it was best that he returned home to be with his family.”

Hesson was a Coach and we have seen some   unending debate on who makes a great coach and whether a coach can really transform an ordinary team to greater heights ~ remember when Kapil Dev lifted the Prudential World Cup in 1983, the only official was manager Mr Mansingh who perhaps took care of administrative matters. This  man however changed the fortunes of New Zealand Cricket and  suddenly announced his retirement.  Consider this – before the 2015 WC, Kiwis have made to the semis of WC 6 times, but never got into the finals. In 2015 in front of their home crowds, they were on a roll, marching to the finals unbeaten, but failed against their trans-Tasman rivals. Mike Hesson !!

Downunder, with less than a year left to the World Cup, Mike Hesson, the 43-year-old head coach of New Zealand, has announced he will step down.   NZC chief executive David White said he attempted to persuade him to stay on and guide the team through the World Cup in May 2019 but understood the decision. New Zealand coach Mike Hesson did  more to show that a paucity of playing experience need not be a barrier to a plum coaching job. His coaching journey began accidentally. When he was a player for Otago A aged 21, he was offered a contract for a club in Cambridgeshire in England on the condition that he was involved in coaching too.  At 23, when he gained coaching qualification.  Otago appointed Hesson as coaching director, working under Glenn Turner. He remained there for six years. After taking up an offer to become Argentina's coach, Hesson returned to Otago a year later, replacing Turner as head coach.  Kenya provided  Hesson's  international job when he was hired after the 2011 World Cup. Only 11 months later he resigned, fearing for his family's security after his family fell victim to an attempted car-jacking and a grenade exploded near their house in Nairobi.

When John Wright quit as New Zealand coach in 2012, Hesson became one of the few full-time coaches of a Test nation not to have played a single first-class match – and RCB hired him.

Bert Sutcliffe MBE was a New Zealand Test cricketer. Sutcliffe was a successful left-hand batsman. His batting achievements on tour in England in 1949, which included four fifties and a century in the Tests, earned him the accolade of being one of Wisden's Five Cricketers of the Year. He captained New Zealand in four Tests in the early 1950s, losing three of them and drawing the other. None of Sutcliffe's 42 Tests resulted in a New Zealand victory.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

29.4.2020.