New Zealand cricket coach Mike Hesson wants to meet Ross Taylor and clear the air before the England series.

Ross Taylor opted out of the Black Caps' just-completed tour to South Africa following his axing by Hesson, who handed the captaincy to Brendon McCullum.

Discrepancies remain in the stories of the two sides about a meeting in Sri Lanka ahead of the second test.

Taylor, Hesson, assistant coach Bob Carter and manager Mike Sandle were in attendance.

Taylor has said he was told he would lose the captaincy in all three forms of the game while Hesson insists he intended Taylor to retain the test captaincy and only have McCullum in charge in Twenty20 and one-day cricket.

Last week, Taylor was named in the New Zealand XI to take on England in two T20 matches on Monday and Wednesday next week in Whangarei and is expected to be named in the Black Caps' T20 and ODI squads later this week.

Yesterday, Hesson, who arrived back from South Africa late on Sunday night, confirmed he hoped to meet Taylor.

He would not go into details over what he expected to say, but clearing the air between them and making a plan on how to move forward in a working relationship will surely be high on the agenda.

Taylor is a crucial batting cog in all three formats and Hesson needs all the firepower he can get so a result is a must.

There is next to no chance of the contents of the Hesson-Taylor conversation being made public, although the expected outcome is for the pair to put everything behind them, shake hands, smile and move on.

It is unclear whether Carter and or Sandle will attend the meeting although Carter is the coach of the New Zealand XI, so it is expected he, too, will talk to Taylor before the two matches. 

- © Fairfax NZ News