New Zealand cricket chiefs apologise to former captain Ross Taylor over replacement row

New Zealand Cricket chairman Chris Moller admitted 'the ball's been dropped' as he apologised to Taylor over the way his replacement as captain for the South Africa series was handled.

Former New Zealand captain Ross Taylor (l) and the man who replaced him, Brendon McCullum.

New Zealand Cricket has publicly apologised to Ross Taylor for its poor handling of the former captain's demotion.

Taylor was stripped of the one-day and Twenty20 captaincy last week at the recommendation of head coach Mike Hesson after the tour of Sri Lanka - and the disgruntled batsman turned down the offer to continue as test skipper.

Brendon McCullum was named the new captain in all three formats while Taylor opted out of the team's tour of South Africa.

"The board has reviewed all aspects of the captaincy issue and wishes to publicly place on record its apologies to Ross Taylor and his family for the manner in which events have unfolded," said Chris Moller, the NZC chairman.

The situation sparked calls in New Zealand for administrators to resign over the way it was handled, with former players and pundits claiming the episode had made Hesson's job untenable.

However, Moller insisted there would be no dismissals despite the fallout from the decision.

"There are no hanging offences in all of this," he said.

"Yes, the ball's been dropped, absolutely. Could we have done things better? Absolutely. Are we going to learn from those mistakes, well we hope so."

Taylor, New Zealand's top test batsman, acknowledged the apology in a post on his Twitter account.

"I appreciate the apology from NZC today," he tweeted. "Keen to put it behind me and looking forward to getting back with the team soon."

New Zealand head to South Africa later this month to play three Twenty20 internationals ahead of a two-test series against the Proteas in January.

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