Mike Hesson

Mike Hesson

Personal information
Full name	Michael James Hesson
Born	(1974-10-30) 30 October 1974 Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand
Source: espncricinfo.com, 25 May 2013

Michael James Hesson ONZM (born 30 October 1974) is the current head coach of the New Zealand cricket team and the former coach of Kenya and Otago teams, where he played in the reserve side, thus having no first-class caps. He has also coached the Argentine National cricket team. He was appointed as head coach on 20 July 2012, until the end of the World Cup, with a possible extension to tours of England and Sri Lanka in 2015.

Prior to his appointment he served as Kenya’s cricket coach, citing "security concerns" as the cause of his resignation.

Hesson was criticised for his controversial recommendation that Ross Taylor should surrender captaincy in favour of Brendon McCullum, who is allegedly a close friend of Hesson, and was his teammate in the reserve Otago-A side. Criticism of Hesson and New Zealand Cricket was exacerbated by the revelation that Hesson had revealed his decision to Taylor four days before a test match against Sri Lanka. However, in the second test, Taylor's man of the match performance led New Zealand to a historic win over Sri Lanka. As such, Hesson extended an olive branch by allowing Taylor to retain the Test Captaincy, which Taylor consequently rejected and opted to take a break from cricket.

in 2013-14, Hesson has mended the relationship with Taylor and has taken the Black Caps to series wins in England and South Africa away, and West Indies and India at home. He has also proven his talent for picking players who can translate domestic success into international success.

In the 2015 Queen's Birthday Honours Hesson was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to cricket.