Hadlee, Fleming, Adams … Notts know just how good New Zealanders are

If the appointment of Brendon McCullum as England’s Test head coach is a case of cribbing the New Zealand way, then the hosts for this second Test, Nottinghamshire, could be forgiven for wondering what took them so long.

From the day Richard Hadlee first cruised into Trent Bridge 44 years ago, the New Zealand lineage at Notts has been plentiful and its influence inarguable. Their last four County Championship titles, in 1981, 1987, 2005 and 2010, were driven by the excellence of New Zealanders – Hadlee, Stephen Fleming and Andre Adams playing central roles – and there has been a healthy knock-on effect for England.

Hadlee is clearly primus inter pares, his 10 years at the club returning the first two of those titles, plus the NatWest Trophy in 1987. In 148 first-class matches he took 622 victims at a staggering average of 14 and in 1984 he did the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets. With his batting straight from the pages of Alexandre Dumas and swishing 5,854 first-class runs at 38, it was something of a formality when supporters voted him Nottinghamshire’s all-time greatest player in 2020.

“He was simply inspirational,” says Mick Newell, a teammate of Hadlee and then head coach/team director as an influx of Kiwi cricketers at Trent Bridge followed. “We had him and Clive Rice [the South African all-rounder] and they just spurred each other on. The rest of us strived for a new level and just wanted their blessing and respect to be in their team. And it was their team, as far as I was concerned.

“I remember my debut at Lord’s in 1984, we were 17 for four. Hadlee says Rice told him to score a double hundred, so he did. Because he could. When he did the runs/wickets double, his coffin had a piece of paper taped to it that