Alas Smith and Rennie
A couple of high-profile departures greet The Bounce's return from a short, wet summer hiatus.
Ian Smith is a brilliant cricket commentator and an excellent rugby sideline eye.
He can live out the rest of his days with the quiet (or loud, it’s up to him) satisfaction of knowing some of his calls will live on long past his best-before date expires.
His work towards the end of the Game We Never Speak Of in 2019 was pitch perfect, even before the above hard-trance treatment, and dedicated Black Caps’ fans will have a particular soft spot for his flourishes towards the end of the thrilling and bizarre test win against Australia in Hobart 11 long summers ago.
Smith has a remarkable, intuitive way of offering razor-sharp dispassionate analysis at one turn and passion when it’s needed. He often does his best work as the lone New Zealander in a box full of Australians and English when he threads the needle between being proud of his heritage without veering into jingoism.
Both of those calls referenced above were heard on Sky, the place where Smith announced today that he had left after 23 years. Speaking on his Senz radio show and later reported on Stuff, Smith described it as a mutual parting of the ways.
Sky moved aggressively and successfully to keep Smith when they lost the local cricket rights to Spark Sport. My understanding is they wanted him to stay on for 2023 and beyond but on a restructured contract. Smith rejected this, as is his right.
It was the calculated comments he made, however, that warrant scrutiny.
“Sky TV has a changing face now, a long way removed from this old scaly, sunburnt one,” Smith said, utilising classic self-deprecation. “There’s a new breed, if you haven’t noticed, and that’s the way it’s trending away from the career broadcaster - like Nisbo (Grant Nisbett) and TJ (Tony Johnson), those guys in particular, and let’s hope it’s a long time before they are away from our screens. Ultimate, dedicated pros and a pleasure to work alongside.”
This is true. Sports broadcasting has moved away from “career”, school-taught broadcasters in favour of ex-internationals. Smith himself has been a beneficiary of this but this is neither new, nor startling.
Just looking at our national winter and summer sports, you could rattle off a laundry list of ex-internationals that have transitioned to TV commentary or punditry with varying degrees of success.
Murray Mexted, Grahame Thorne, Stu Wilson, Jeff Wilson, Justin Marshall, the late Willie Los’e, Karl Te Nana, Mils Muliaina and Honey Hireme among many others have gone from the field to the booth.
In cricket it’s even more pronounced with the extended nature of the game requiring more bodies. Glenn Turner, John Morrison, Billy Ibadulla, Smith, Martin Crowe, Simon Doull, Mark Richardson, Scott Styris, Shane Bond, Richard Hadlee, Brendon McCullum, Frances Mackay, Katey Martin, Grant Elliott and so many more have done the job.
It doesn’t mean you can’t make it without international sporting credentials, but it has been trending this way for decades now, certainly since Kerry Packer got his hands on the rights to Australian cricket.
It was this paragraph that gave me real pause for thought, however.
“There’s a purpose and a direction towards Maori and Pacific input and, of course, female sport, like never before. The way of the world as they say.
“So it was mutual that we part ways.”
I feel like this needs greater clarity. Is Smith saying it was mutual they parted ways because he is neither Maori or Pasifika, nor female?
I’m not sure I can succinctly articulate why - which is why I’d make a lousy broadcaster - but there is a subtext that makes me uncomfortable: that if you’re brown or female you’re there only because “it’s the way of the world”, not because you have the talent to do it well, just as scores of sportsmen-turned-commentators have in the past.
This might be a misread, but it sounds like Smith, who has turned into one of the finest sports broadcasters this country has produced, perhaps the finest, is begrudging others the same opportunity he once was handed.
The other significant departure notice today involved Dave Rennie, although he did not have as much agency in his decision as Smith did.
Rennie was sacked by Rugby Australia after Aussie Eddie Jones suddenly became available.
It’s hard to criticise RA for getting desperate. Rennie simply didn’t win enough and he was never going to work with Jones in an umbrella role above him.
Jones appeals as a short-term fixer and it might be that the Wallabies are transformed from an outsider to a contender over the next eight months. He has nothing to lose - the mess is not his.
It’s the next World Cup cycle that will be most intriguing.
Jones wears people out: his assistants, his players, his bosses.
While this feels like the obvious move to make looking ahead to this year’s World Cup, there will likely be buyer’s remorse before 2027 is wrapped up.
Meanwhile, Drew Mitchell, in the SMH (metered $), said he felt like Australian rugby had seen this situation before.
“It reminds me a lot of 2019,” Mitchell tweeted. “6-8 months before a World Cup, Rugby AU’s leadership lose faith in the current coach. [In] 2019 they appointed a selection panel because they didn’t have faith in [Michael] Cheika. 2023 they sack Rennie.
“At what point does the focus turn on the people who make the appointments in the first place? These tweets aren’t about my thoughts on who or who shouldn’t be the man in charge. To some extent, feels like history is repeating itself.”
It’s amazing how quickly a simple week-long sports detox can leave you feeling totally divorced from the world of professional fun and games.
The only sport I was exposed to was channelling my inner Phil Skoglund on a lovely flat piece of grass in Russell, where I fell prey to the paparazzi.
The one-day series in Pakistan passed me by as I dodged torrential downpours in the winterless north. Given the time I invested in a test series that ended 0-0, you can probably question my priorities there.
The ASB Classic went by without a glance. I’ve never found the men’s tournament easy to embrace or particularly interesting. The only thing it has going over the women’s tournament is it is not quite so infected by a succession of questions asking them how they’re enjoying New Zealand1. I’ve covered both several times and I’ve always got the sense that many in the men’s field just want a couple of matches and then to bugger off on the fastest plane to prepare for the Australian Open.
Not many would have backed the 36-year-old Richard Gasquet to win, a player who seems to have been around as long as Fleetwood Mac and, like several members of the band, has an interesting cocaine story in his past.
“It’s an amazing title for me, especially now at my age. I really didn’t think I would win again,” Gasquet said, before keeping everybody happy with a rugby reference. “I know a lot about New Zealand. I am a rugby fan, so coming here was special for me.”
One of the stupidest things you can do as a sports follower, let alone reporter, is to try to comment on things you haven’t seen, so as pleasantly surprised as I was to see that the Black Caps won the one-day series against Pakistan 2-1, having not seen a single ball, the only judgements I can offer are based on reading the scorecards and you don’t need me to do that for you.
A couple of small stats based observations.
Without having seen how they went about their work, the ODI batting blueprint would appear to have been adhered to beautifully: two of Kane Williamson, Devon Conway and Tom Latham to go big, while you hope at least one of Daryl Mitchell, Finn Allen, Michael Bracewell or Glenn Phillips comes off with a more-than-one-a-ball match-altering contribution.
You could say that Tim Southee becoming New Zealand’s most prolific wicket taker (697) is a testament to volume, but that would be unfair. That he has played 86 fewer matches across all three formats than Daniel Vettori (696), the man he passed, should be enough to disabuse you of that notion. Southee is not New Zealand’s greatest bowler, Richard Hadlee (589 in 201 tests and ODIs) retains that mantle by a distance, but he is great and does not appear to be in decline.
THIS WEEK
I will make it my mission to reintegrate myself into the world of sport and get The Bounce cued up for a big 2023. The BYC returns late on Wednesday and The Week That Was and the Weekend That Will Be kicks off again on Friday. Thanks for your patience.
I find the obsession with asking visiting tennis players whether they are enjoying their time in Auckland and whether they are coming back super-cringey and I just wish they’d answer: “The remarkable thing about New Zealand is that the courts are the exact same dimension as every court I’ve played on everywhere else in the world and if I’m here this time next year it means I’ve come back.”