Sticks in the mud
Paddy Lewis
New Zealand Cricket and Wayne Rooney find themselves in a similar position these days. Both are hated by their fans, off their game, and see no sign of light at the end of the long dark tunnel.
The difference is that Rooney can go to another club with perhaps a more engaging manager and play with players who can help him get out of his form slump – caused in no small part by his penchant for escorts with discretion issues.
The Black Caps, on the other hand, are stuck in the schtuck.
Every so often the news story will do the rounds “Rugby dying…soccer taking over” with the subtext of some whiny mother from Wilton worried about her 3 stone 12 year old getting beaten to a pulp by 18 stone 12 year olds from Porirua.
But rugby rebounds. Always has, always will. Well, should do.
Cricket, on the other hand, has been on an inexorable slide to oblivion city in the place where it needs help the most – the grassroots and player development.
Gone are the days when rugby and soccer players would swap the mud for a season in the sun. The vast bulk of winter code players who do play cricket are more likely to be playing ‘block and bash’ twilight cricket after work on a weeknight than turning out for two days over a weekend.
Even more so in younger generations are those eschewing cricket for touch or softball. Both are over relatively quickly and still allow you to have the bulk of your weekend free.
As a result, there is not the talent available, and NZ Cricket’s attempts to create more pathways by using 20/20 or other truncated forms of the game don’t help that problem. Being a great ball basher doesn’t help when we’re five down chasing 400 with a day to play in a Test.
Other commentators bemoan the lack of leisure time these days, a lack of interest from youth, lack of interest from teachers, and so on.
The former is not an issue – but spending all your leisure time playing cricket is. I love watching five-day Test matches – but I know that if I had the choice between playing in one and playing a game that was over in three hours instead, I’d take the latter.
There is no easy route out of this problem for NZ Cricket. Having a crisis meeting over the 4-0 lashing by Bangladesh (I almost cried typing that) does nothing to address the lack of depth that has been building for some time. We have several Black Caps who can’t play basic shots well. On the Bangladesh tour, a number nine batsman was the third highest run scorer.
Incentivising them through pay cuts and performance payments might keep the rabid fans from ripping up their cricket season tickets, but it will not address the key issues.
Cricket is becoming increasingly irrelevant to our up and comers. They don’t have the time for it, they don’t get the proper coaching, and for those reasons, it’s going to slip further and further down the sporting food chain in Godzone.
However, as with everything, there is a bright side. According to Google, there are 463,000 Wayne Rooney jokes doing the rounds right now. There’s only 19,500 about the Black Caps.
The difference is that Rooney can go to another club with perhaps a more engaging manager and play with players who can help him get out of his form slump – caused in no small part by his penchant for escorts with discretion issues.
The Black Caps, on the other hand, are stuck in the schtuck.
Every so often the news story will do the rounds “Rugby dying…soccer taking over” with the subtext of some whiny mother from Wilton worried about her 3 stone 12 year old getting beaten to a pulp by 18 stone 12 year olds from Porirua.
But rugby rebounds. Always has, always will. Well, should do.
Cricket, on the other hand, has been on an inexorable slide to oblivion city in the place where it needs help the most – the grassroots and player development.
Gone are the days when rugby and soccer players would swap the mud for a season in the sun. The vast bulk of winter code players who do play cricket are more likely to be playing ‘block and bash’ twilight cricket after work on a weeknight than turning out for two days over a weekend.
Even more so in younger generations are those eschewing cricket for touch or softball. Both are over relatively quickly and still allow you to have the bulk of your weekend free.
As a result, there is not the talent available, and NZ Cricket’s attempts to create more pathways by using 20/20 or other truncated forms of the game don’t help that problem. Being a great ball basher doesn’t help when we’re five down chasing 400 with a day to play in a Test.
Other commentators bemoan the lack of leisure time these days, a lack of interest from youth, lack of interest from teachers, and so on.
The former is not an issue – but spending all your leisure time playing cricket is. I love watching five-day Test matches – but I know that if I had the choice between playing in one and playing a game that was over in three hours instead, I’d take the latter.
There is no easy route out of this problem for NZ Cricket. Having a crisis meeting over the 4-0 lashing by Bangladesh (I almost cried typing that) does nothing to address the lack of depth that has been building for some time. We have several Black Caps who can’t play basic shots well. On the Bangladesh tour, a number nine batsman was the third highest run scorer.
Incentivising them through pay cuts and performance payments might keep the rabid fans from ripping up their cricket season tickets, but it will not address the key issues.
Cricket is becoming increasingly irrelevant to our up and comers. They don’t have the time for it, they don’t get the proper coaching, and for those reasons, it’s going to slip further and further down the sporting food chain in Godzone.
However, as with everything, there is a bright side. According to Google, there are 463,000 Wayne Rooney jokes doing the rounds right now. There’s only 19,500 about the Black Caps.
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