Chasing Amy away
PLUS: The Warriors feature in both The Week That Was and the Weekend That Will Be.
Bold or crazy? Most pundits have fallen on the latter adjective when assessing the decision to omit Amy Satterthwaite from New Zealand Cricket’s central contracts list.
I’m not usually short of an opinion when it comes to cricket but there’s a big fence running through the middle of this issue and I’m sitting on it.
NZC’s general manager of high performance Bryan Stronach was candid in his assessment of the White Ferns when he said “they’re not where we need them to be”.
That, I am led to believe, is not just a statement of the obvious, but an NZC board directive. When viewed through that prism, those words carry more freight.
It’s true, too. Despite having the generational talents of Sophie Devine, Suzie Bates and Amelia Kerr, the White Ferns were desperately disappointing as hosts of the recent World Cup, failing to rise not only to the big occasion, but also the mid-sized ones.
They looked to be playing one-day cricket from a different, more passive era, especially when compared to the brilliant Australians.
Nor can you argue with the logic behind focusing on T20 cricket, which is already the primary women’s format and will only become more dominant.
Whether Satterthwaite deserves to be a victim of the performance ‘reset’ is another matter.
Her comments, delivered with class, spoke of a player blindsided by the move.
“It has been a tough few days after learning of NZC’s decision to head in a new direction and contract some younger cricketers. I am disappointed not to be receiving a contract and believe I still had more to offer.
“It came out of the blue and was a bit of a shock. I haven’t been given any insight that this was the direction they wanted to go. It was pretty devastating to hear.”
Satterthwaite is one of New Zealand’s bona fide one-day greats but if the push for a more dynamic, short-form focus is required then to be brutally honest she’s not a great fit. If the intention was not to select her over the next 12 months - and this is difficult to ascertain unless they know who the next coach is going to be and they’ve made their thoughts clear on it - then it doesn’t make sense to give a contract to Satterthwaite.
In that respect, there’s again a logic to her axing.
Where it gets murky is the nailed-on fact that she’s a better cricketer and would certainly offer more in terms of raw production than the newcomers on the list. The talent pool in our women’s cricket is shallow so there’s huge risk in jettisoning tried-and-true players in an attempt to create artificial depth with inferior players.
There are no guarantees any young batters in the country will reach, let alone surpass, Satterthwaite’s abilities.
Stuff’s Brendon Egan has taken issue with her dumping. It’s strong and passionate advocacy, though not flawless.
Citing Satterthwaite’s century against Northern Districts as proof of T20 credentials is like referencing Amelia Kerr and Leigh Kasperek’s 295-run ODI partnership against Ireland in 2018 as proof they should be batting at numbers 2 and 3 for the White Ferns: both are great achievements on the day but strength-of-opposition render them meaningless when trying to project a wider picture.
Nor should she have been afforded a Ross Taylor-like farewell. Hell, Ross Taylor shouldn’t have been given a Ross Taylor-like farewell and if you peeled back the curtain, I’m pretty sure a low-key one-day series against The Netherlands is absolutely NOT the way he would have chosen to go.
It’s a tough call, as was the dropping of Satterthwaite’s wife Lea Tahuhu from the list. While Tahuhu, 31, will fight to come back, at 35 Satterthwaite has chosen to retire.
I’m of the mind that omitting Satterthwaite probably wasn’t the right call, but not because she didn’t get to go out on her own terms: that’s not really how high-performance sport works.
THE WEEK THAT WAS
High-performance sport also doesn’t work very well when the owner fights with the players, especially not when the fight takes place at a boozer.
The latest Warriors revelations are on the one hand so tabloid and trivial - a disagreement between two blokes at a pub - and on the other so emblematic of a organisation that needs a cultural overhaul.
Make no mistake, I’m glad Matt Lodge is gone. I wish they never signed him. But geez, a salary-cap eating $700,000 to get rid of a malcontent, willingly paid by the owner because it was he who had given Lodge an excuse not to turn up to work - that’s tough to take.
Robinson is a colourful character and the Autex “family” has proved its commitment to New Zealand league over decades, but honestly, you cannot make this stuff up.
The French open is my least favourite of the grand slams due to a mix of time zone and surface.
It’s still capable of conjuring up storylines, although this one is not pleasant.
Panic attacks are no fun at the best of times; having one come on during a match is not the best of times. I feel for Simona Halep.
“I was playing well at the start. I had a break in the second set but then something happened and I just lost it. Probably I put too much pressure on myself because I really wanted to do well. I felt good, I practiced, I worked hard, but it just didn’t happen and probably I got a little bit of panic during that thinking, overthinking.”
NZ v ENGLAND SPECIALS
Just a quick note to say that I’ll be sending out While-You-Were-Sleeping type reports during the test series against England that starts at Lord’s on June 2. I’ll risk divorce by staying up through the night and harrumphing at everything during the day so you don’t have to. Unless they’re part of the usual Monday and Friday newsletters, these reports will be for paying subscribers only, which seems a good time to mention that The Bounce is offering a midwinter special!
THE WEEKEND THAT WILL BE
Outside of 2005’s Miracle of Istanbul, there’s something about the Champions League final that has always left me a bit cold, but if Gabriele Marcotti says this will be box office, I’m inclined to believe him.
There’s no fairytale here. There's merit and savvy, quality and confidence, experience and grit. Most observers would rank Liverpool, runners-up in the Premier League and winners of the League Cup and FA Cup, and Real Madrid, winners of LaLiga, as two of the top three club sides in Europe this season.
One of the more intriguing players in the final is Luis Díaz (pictured), a livewire who joined Liverpool in January and exudes such joy in his playing he’s already a Kop favourite. This is a lovely profile about his journey from humble beginnings in Colombia to the game’s biggest club match.
Liverpool v Real Madrid, Paris, Sunday 7am, Spark Sport
The Boston-Miami NBA Eastern Conference final series has been about as ugly as basketball gets. As a stupid teenage dare, however, I got the Celtics’ leprechaun tattooed on my butt, so I’ve literally got skin in the game.
Celtics v Miami, Game 6, Boston, tomorrow 12.40pm, ESPN
The Max Verstappen-Charles Leclerc rivalry could shape Formula One for the next decade, if Red Bull and Ferrari can keep their respective cars on the track long enough for them to go head to head. The roadshow moves to the streets of Monte Carlo for the glitziest and often boringest race on the circuit. A race that is also under threat.
Monaco GP, Monte Carlo, Monday 1am, Spark Sport
Oh, go on then.
NZ Warriors v Newcastle Knights, Redcliffe, tomorrow 5pm
I’ve been particularly slack when it comes to netball this season, but Grace Nweke’s injury ($) and some late-season losses by the Mystics has shook things up a little and added a bit of intrigue to the final round-robin week of the ANZ Championship.
Mystics v Pulse, Auckland, June 3, 7.15pm, Sky Sport 2 (rescheduled from tomorrow)
What amounts to a bunch of not-quite-dead-but-definitely-dying rubbers will end the Super Rugby Pacific regular season. What we’ve been served up until now has been patchy but it’s the three-plus months of near pointlessness that has damaged SPR’s credibility.
Go back to the start of the season. You have a 12-team comp and you know eight teams make the playoffs. You take out your retractable pencil and draw a line through Fijian Drua and Moana Pasifika because, no matter how much we celebrate their inclusion, you know they’re not going to be sustainably competitive this season, or probably for the next three seasons.
OK, so 10 into eight, not much intrigue there but let’s see the squad lists.
Hmmm, the Rebels look weak. Surprise, surprise. The Force? Not much there. The Waratahs are rebuilding but are hovering on the credibility edge. The Highlanders are clearly the weakest of the five New Zealand franchises. The rest will be fine.
As it turned out, the Tahs were better than expected and the Reds worse, but other than that it has gone just like we knew it would go.
Now there’s plenty of you that love rugby so much that you’ll need no excuse to watch a couple of matches this weekend, but I’ve been through the list and cannot find one to hang my hat on, so I’m having a bye week and will rejoin you for the playoffs.
