Friday, March 29, 2024

ALTERNATIVE VIEW: Nothing short of remarkable

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I enjoy all sports but rugby and cricket in particular. I played both at a social level well into my 60s. In both cases enthusiasm outdid ability, but I enjoyed every minute. In the case of cricket, failing eyesight meant I was a danger to both myself and everyone else on the paddock, so I gracefully retired. The upside was I became popular as an umpire, which I still enjoy.
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My enjoyment of cricket has increased over the decades and this year has been special.

For a start, we’re now number one in the world. It’s a position I’d never thought was possible. Just seven years ago we held eighth spot. In that year we were bowled out by South Africa for a mere 45 runs. I can’t imagine that happening today, no matter how bad the track was.

It’s not just the men’s game either. The women’s game at local and international level has become a must-watch. The talent there is quite amazing. I’ll certainly be following our team in next year’s World Cup to be held here.

Another fact to consider is the spirit the games have been played under. Both Pakistan and the Windies were superb ambassadors for the game. It was great to see.

We’ve just enjoyed a great season of cricket locally where New Zealand played incredibly well. I spent the entire West Indian Test at the Basin Reserve sitting behind the wicket, watching every ball.

Putting our 460 first innings total in perspective, we batted first on an absolute dog of a pitch. The West Indians have a great bowling attack, but what was more impressive was the commitment of our batters.

The ball turned hugely for the first two sessions and it turned into the second day. In seasons past, we’d have been lucky to have made 100.

With the Pakistan series we again performed superbly well in all aspects of the game – our batting, bowling and fielding were all world-class, as our status reflects.

It hasn’t always been like that. The first Test I remember was against the English at Carisbrook in 1966. We had our stars Dick Motz, the fast bowler who could also bat, and Bevan Congdon, but the others, they were good players, not stars.

I was also at the Basin in 1978 when we defeated England for the first time. We had a good lineup, including Hadlee, Boock, John Wright and Richard Collinge. The English team had mega stars, the likes of Willis, Botham and Boycott. Victory was sweet.

Over the years we’ve had our stars, but the difference is that now we don’t have one or two stars in our team, we have 11. Add to that the players in the wings like Conway, Young, Kugjelein, Bracewell and Sodhi, and we have an amazing depth of talent unlike any lineup I’ve ever seen.

That the NZ Initiative gives them international exposure is excellent.

That depth wouldn’t have just fallen from the sky, it was developed over decades by the board and management of NZ Cricket.

I can remember back in the early 2000s when the so-called big three of cricket –  England, India and Australia – decided they’d do their own thing and just play each other. The remaining countries including NZ, South Africa, West Indies and Pakistan would be a second-tier competition, such was the arrogance of the three.

Martin Sneddon was chief executive of NZ Cricket back then and attended the ICC meeting in London. Nobody knows what really happened, but the plan was killed and since then we’ve had a variety of top teams here, all helping to develop NZ Cricket.

If that hadn’t happened, we would never have got to the position of being the world’s number one. The best we could have realistically hoped for would be number four.

Martin Snedden was chief executive from 2000 to 2007, followed by Dr Justin Vaughan until 2011 when the current incumbent David White was appointed. As well as being highly-qualified chief executives, they all played for NZ. They’ve all performed with distinction.

Putting our achievement in further perspective, we have an extremely small population, smaller than the cities of Sydney, Mumbai or London.

NZ has just 170,000 registered cricket players, Australia has almost 10 times as many with 1.4 million. India has 20 times our players, with over three million.

That makes our achievement of going from eighth to first in the world in just seven years nothing short of remarkable.

I went to the NZ Cricket website to check out NZ Cricket’s board members. The chair is Martin Snedden and the president since 2016 has been Debbie Hockley. They are a highly-qualified, extremely diverse bunch who are obviously extremely focused. 

They’re an incredibly successful board and a role model for sport and business alike.

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