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Kane most able
The Black Caps’ skipper and a redeemed Ben
Stokes hailed as the Cricket World Cup’s heroes.
GE
TT
Y
IM
AG
ESAnd Williamson’s grace and stoicism in
the face of a shatteringly cruel outcome
were a lesson to the rest of us – players,
fans, the media – whose response in
these situations is to complain, denounce
and scapegoat. You can “what if” till
you’re blue in the face: apart from being
pointless, it’s spurious unless, as William-
son said, you “look at the small margins
throughout the whole match”, bearing in
mind that sporting contests are dynamic,
volatile environments in which the
competitors are constantly adapting and
reacting.
The other player whose reputation got a
boost was Ben Stokes. He steered the Eng-
lish innings through two crises and held
his nerve under the most intense pressure.
His man-of-the-match performance was
redemption in spades. In the final of the
2016 Twenty20 World Cup in India, Stokes
was tasked with bowling the final over
with the West Indies needing 19 to win.
Carlos Braithwaite, the bowling allrounder
who very nearly blasted his side to victory
over the Black Caps last month, smashed
four consecutive sixes.
And for much of 2017/18, Stokes’ career
hung in the balance after a mid-series late-
night brawl outside a Bristol nightclub.
Stokes claimed he’d gone to the defence
of a gay couple being subjected to homo-
phobic abuse; CCTV footage showed him
pushing the principle that attack is the
best form of defence to the outermost
edge of the envelope. He was eventually
acquitted on a charge of affray.
At the time, the Daily Mail sought to
locate the source of Stokes’ “confronta-
tional attitude”. The search zeroed in on
an area on the South Island’s east coast
bounded by the Port Hills to the south
and the Waimakariri River to the north,
what we know and love as Christchurch:
“Stokes is actually a New Zealander by
ancestry and birth ... He also has Māori
blood from his mother’s distant relatives.”
In 2003, Stokes’ father, Ged, who played
a test for the Kiwis in 1982, took up a
coaching job in the UK; thus, Ben grew up
in the small west Cumbrian town of – let
me make sure I get this right – Cocker-
mouth. It’s safe to assume the Mail won’t
be dwelling on his New Zealand birth and
ancestry for the foreseeable future.Noeline Taurua, almost speak for
themselves; all that needs to be added
is, “Better late than never.”
We are a remarkable sporting
nation. The Cricket World Cup was
yet another example of New Zealand
punching above its weight. Thank-
fully, the netballers were able to land
that crucial extra blow. l
Noeline Taurua’s
achievements almost
speak for themselves.
Different strokes:
Black Caps captain
Kane Williamson,
left, and Ben Stokes.The Silver Ferns
celebrate beating
Australia.T
he disappointment and stupefac-
tion arising from the Cricket World
Cup final should be receding, but
the debates go on. Right now, someone,
somewhere is compiling a list of five or
15 or 50 ways to break a tie that would be
better and fairer than handing the trophy
to the team that hit more boundaries.
Apart from its sheer randomness, the
stipulation effectively penalised the
Black Caps for the very batting strategy –
accumulation and preservation of wickets- that got them to the final.
One thing supporters of both finalists
can agree on is that two players emerged
from this exhibition of wholehearted
commitment and heroic endeavour with
significantly enhanced reputations.
That was no mean feat for Black Caps
captain Kane Williamson given he was
already acknowledged as a batter of
the very highest quality. He’s now also
regarded as an outstanding captain and a
shining example of how to play the game.
Indeed, it may not be far-fetched to sug-
gest that he’s currently the most admired
and influential cricketer in the world.
Williamson’s understated style and
self-effacing manner will never entirely
convince those who think leading a
cricket team is about bantam cock body
language, relentless “positivity” in media
interviews and always erring on the side
of aggression in tactics and strategy.
Following the final, some writers
dusted off Rudyard Kipling’s line, “If you
can meet with Triumph and Disaster/And
treat those two impostors just the same.”
It has a nice ring but, in reality, if you could
do that, there probably wouldn’t
be a great deal of triumph
in your life. Why go to all the
trouble? The opening lines of
the same poem – If – evoke a
crucial component
of successful
cricket captaincy
that Williamson
has in spades:
“If you can keep
your head when
all about you/
Are losing theirs
and blaming it
on you.”