Lament for the Jazzman
A cricket heavy newsletter, PLUS: The Week That Was and the Weekend That Will Be
In the end, the guy who performed one of the most extraordinary feats in New Zealand cricket history was reduced to a throwaway line - a line he didn’t even get to himself.
“A smaller squad for home tours means there’s no room for spinner Ajaz Patel or batsman Glenn Phillips, both of whom also toured Pakistan recently,” read the New Zealand Cricket press release announcing the test squad to face England this month.
It is an understandable decision. Patel looked short of a gallop in Pakistan and captain Tim Southee barely used him as they chased victory on the last day of the second test, preferring Ish Sodhi and Michael Bracewell.
Bracewell’s batting gives the team balance and Sodhi’s significant improvement in that area leaves Patel a distant third in terms of expected runs scored.
More than that, he hasn’t taken a test wicket in the 294 balls he’s delivered in home conditions.
So, yes, it’s a pretty easy call to make.
It’s also hard to see Patel getting another go. He’s 34, not in great form, and New Zealand’s focus after this summer will turn to one-day cricket, where he is not part of the picture. By the time attention turns once more to the grand old format, Patel will be a year older and would not have enough red-ball cricket under his belt to groove his action - and he is a rhythm bowler.
But no matter how correct the call, it only strengthens the belief that Patel has been one of the most egregiously mishandled talents in the country’s long cricket history.
The problem started in the Mike Hesson era, when the Black Caps coach wouldn’t pick Patel because he didn’t rate him, despite the CD spinner topping the Plunket Shield wicket-takers three seasons running.
It took a farcical turn 13 months ago, when Patel was dropped by Gary Stead on return from Mumbai where he took 14 wickets in a test and became one of only three players in history to bag all 10 in an innings.
Defenders of the system will say that it is not the selectors job to pick on sentiment and they are right. There were, however, sound reasons for including Patel in the squad to face Bangladesh last summer, not least because he was full of confidence and a left-arm orthodox spinner with less red-ball credentials than he, Mitchell Santner, had played a pivotal role in a win against Pakistan on the same wicket a year earlier.
That was a decision made on an analyst’s laptop with little or no appreciation for the human condition. His axing was not only a poor cricket decision, but a failure of cricket leadership, which requires both analytical skills and, yes, empathy.
Patel, coming off his highest high, was immediately dropped to his lowest low. Not just out of the XI but the squad. He hasn’t been the same player since, which is obviously on his shoulders more than the selectors, but you can hardly blame the guy for feeling a little bereft.
It wasn’t the last silly decision involving Patel. He got two overs in the first test against England at Lord’s last year before Kane Williamson freaked out when Ben Stokes was on the slog, despite the fact Patel was a couple of centimetres from bowling him with the second-last ball he delivered all tour.
While it is easier to sympathise with Southee’s decision in Karachi, it was still jarring to see Patel get a few overs in over-the-wicket defence mode while Sarfaraz Ahmed was going nuts, while Matt Henry got 21 overs on a highway that offered nothing to the seamers.
This lament might be premature. Patel, or more pointedly the selectors, might have one more trick up their short sleeves, but if the second test at Karachi was his final act as a Black Cap, he leaves with numbers that suggest New Zealand should have done a lot more with his talent.
Here’s how he stacks up against selected other New Zealand left-arm orthodox spinners with 10-plus tests (leading the category is in bold).
And here’s how he stacks up against the two spinners preferred ahead of him in both test and first-class matches.
If you want another illustration of just how poorly Patel’s skills have been utilised, let’s compare him to Jack Leach, who continually gets his tyres pumped up by England tough guys Stokes and Brendon McCullum.
There are caveats with stats, always, but whether it’s the numbers, the eye test or just plain old “feelings”, they all add up to the Jazzman getting a raw deal.
On another note, we discussed on the latest BYC whether we would play Kyle Jamieson against England if we were confident in his fitness. Our question was answered.
The squad for the two-test England series, starting at Mt Maunganui on Feb 16 is:
Tim Southee (c), Michael Bracewell, Tom Blundell (wk), Devon Conway, Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, Tom Latham, Daryl Mitchell, Henry Nicholls, Ish Sodhi, Blair Tickner, Neil Wagner, Kane Williamson, Will Young.
THE WEEK THAT WAS
On a recent episode of the BYC I was asked what the best New Zealand could hope for on the just-completed tour to India was and when you looked at the relative strengths of the squads I thought if they could pinch a game somewhere they’d be doing well.
Well, they pinched a T20I and kind of came close to pinching an ODI and another T20I and yet… the overwhelming sense is it was a tour more troubling than it was instructive.
Perhaps that is due to the absolute pantsings they took in the final T20I? It was the antithesis of George Costanza’s “leave on a high note” maxim.
The thrashing in Ahmedabad on Thursday night, and the one in Indore to end the ODI series, exposed an uncomfortable truth: New Zealand’s attempt to build depth, while admirable in concept, has largely failed.
The gap between the country’s top-line seamers and the second tier is vast and the burden of developing the country’s next great batter will likely again fall to South Africa (Dean Foxcroft, perhaps?).
Here is the winner, singular, and losers, plural, of the Black Caps’ six-match tour of India.
WINNERS
Michael Bracewell
Bracewell already feels indispensable in white-ball cricket, which is ridiculous when you think it took him 11 years to get a go for New Zealand and he’d barely bowled a ball in anger until the last few.
His 140 in the first ODI will live long in the memory, getting the Black Caps to the brink of an improbable win. He didn’t do a lot with the bat after that but he is always in the game with his functional bowling and terrific fielding.
While he is yet to fully convince in tests, he’s shaping as a white-ball fixture.
LOSERS
The top order (excluding Devon Conway)
Yuck.
Tom Latham and Henry Nicholls (3 ODIs), Glenn Phillips and Finn Allen (6 matches) and Mark Chapman (3T20Is) all had tours ranging from ghastly to poor, while Daryl Mitchell (6 matches) wasn’t horrible but he wasn’t very good either.
Of those mentioned, you’d have the least amount of concerns about Mitchell and Latham. Mitchell didn’t meet his own high standards but it’s easy to forget he’s inexperienced in ODIs (19 matches) and batting can be fickle in the middle-order in T20Is. Latham is a very good one-day cricketer who had a bad series.
Nicholls was given another chance to stake a claim for a spot in the ODI side and failed to take it. His form is on a worrying trajectory and his home-and-away splits are extreme. It’s hard to see him forcing his way into World Cup reckoning but stranger things have happened.
Mark Chapman not playing a single ODI was pointless, but he might have answered why with his form in the T20s. He does have his fans, but we’ve really only seen glimpses of international standard against strong opposition.
The biggest concerns have to be Allen and Phillips because they do represent the future.
Both have to be fearless to be effective, but it requires mental strength to continue to bat on the edge while the failures stack up. There is a temptation to rein it in, but these two are picked to ignite the innings at the top and through the middle; if you want a lower-octane, less risky version of that, then these are not the guys.
Phillips top scored with 36 in India and Allen with 40. Neither aggregated 100. They’re both young enough to get better, you just have to hope they’re strong enough characters.
Second-tier seamers
No New Zealand seamer finished the tour with an economy rate under seven runs per over, and none finished with more than five wickets.
It would be lazy to write India off as a pace bowler’s graveyard. Look at India’s quicks for proof that is changing. New Zealand’s quicks just didn’t bowl very well, including pack leader Lockie Ferguson, who took just three wickets across six matches.
Henry Shipley (2 ODIs) and Brett Lister (1 T20I) are brand new to international cricket so it would be harsh to read too much into their performances.
Tickner is a curious one. He’s now played 26 white-ball matches for his country, including all six on this tour, and has been included in the test squad for England. Yet there’s not a lot in his performances to suggest he’s ever going to be anything other than an honest trier who will buy expensive wickets. He’s a guy who oozes effort, the sort of player you want to succeed, but international batters don’t tend to ease off the gas for good buggers.
Jacob Duffy (1 ODI, 2 T20Is) is another who has deserved his chances after a long and successful domestic career, but like Tickner you’re left wondering if he has the tools to limit the damage when bowling to the world’s best.
Gavin Larsen
Slightly left field this one, but a name that has randomly come up in recent conversations with a couple of people at the sharp end of cricket here is Bruce ‘Bootsie’ Edgar. It wouldn’t be in the smoke-and-fire category yet, but it is intriguing.
Edgar was general manager of selection from 2013 to 2015, working alongside coach Mike Hesson. He didn’t really want to leave but struggled to strike up a functional work relationship with now-retired NZC head of cricket Lindsay Crocker.
Edgar’s analytical mind and clear-headed communication were much admired, however.
The only logical reason his name would come up is if there was concern with the current selectors. Stead is going nowhere, but it might be time for him to get a new voice in his ear, with Larsen, who has a well-earned reputation for being one of the nicest guys in cricket, having been in the job since 2015.
The swings and misses are becoming more regular, which is what tends to happen when a team is on the slide. Alongside the punts that haven’t quite worked are more fundamental decisions around spin bowling (see above) and opening batting that have been baffling.
Bring back Bootsie?
Blow me down with a feather. Who would have thought a cleanskin organisation like Fifa would consider bringing Saudi Arabia along for a sponsor at the women’s World Cup?
It’s almost like they have no morals.
Football Australia’s Chris Nikou and Johanna Wood, NZ Football president, have written to Fifa. Associated Press reported it saying:
“We write to express our serious disappointment and concern at the news of the apparent appointment of Visit Saudi as a sponsor.
“We cannot express strongly enough the potential repercussions and fallout that could result [from] this decision.
“Australia and New Zealand, both as sovereign nations and as football associations, have for decades placed the utmost importance on gender equality, and have sought to promote these ideals around the world.”
In case you happen to think objecting to a lucrative sponsorship amounts to nothing more than wokesterism, hipsterism or whatever the lib-owning pejorative of the day is, it is worth noting why this potential deal is so wrong.
Saudi Arabia operates under a male guardianship system that requires every woman to have a guardian from birth until death. These males have the power to make all the critical decisions around her life and welfare. In essence, the state determines that women are permanently disenfranchised from even the most basic decisions we take for granted.
New Zealand and Australia are about to host an event celebrating female exceptionalism - Fifa wants to hitch a regime to that wagon that refuses to allow women to be equal, let alone exceptional.
Tom Brady retired, again.
Brady, the most decorated quarterback in NFL history, usually displayed impeccable timing but he kind of rained on his retirement parade by retiring this time last year as well.
The 45-year-old swears it’s for real this time.
With seven Super Bowl rings and countless other awards, he’s earned it although he is perhaps not as beloved a figure as you might expect.
While on the surface the California Kid he lived the all-American life, he achieved most of his success playing for the New England Patriots, a team that was known to push the ethical envelope, and he was himself suspended for four matches for being part of a scheme to deliberately under-inflate balls - Deflategate - so he could grip them better.
He also tainted his reputation with the liberal cognoscenti by spruiking for Donald Trump ahead of the 2016 election. I visited the Bay Area in 2018, where Brady was born and raised, and was surprised by how many people spat out his name when it came up in conversation.
In the depths of social media, last year’s divorce from Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen, his wife of 13 years, was met with icky levels of schadenfreude.
Whether you loved or loathed him though, his career was self-made - he was never blessed with high-end athleticism and was drafted at No 199 - and an incredible testament to his drive to be the best.
He retires as the GOAT (probably) and according to Sports Illustrated, he got the timing right… this time.
Smart move, after a lifetime of smart career moves. He chose to play in college at Michigan even though it was far from home, and stayed there even when the coaches seemed more enamoured of other quarterbacks. He competed like a starter in New England when there was no indication he would start, and he handled the public scrutiny of the Drew Bledsoe competition like a 10-year vet. He managed to earn more than $300 million in his career while always ensuring that his contract allowed the Patriots to build a championship roster around him.
Most impressive of all: Brady stayed in New England until the exact moment when it was time to leave, and then he chose the perfect landing spot when it was not obvious… in going to Tampa, he found a team with a roster that was ready to win but had not won, giving him a chance to win the Super Bowl (which he did) without any risk that people would say he ruined a Super Bowl contender.
Brady made a rare public misstep when he retired and unretired last year. But whatever his reasons for doing that, coming back was probably the right call, if only because it gave him a chance to decline a little more. That must have eliminated lingering questions in his head about whether he could have won another Super Bowl. Brady got exactly what he wanted out of his Tampa experience. But he wasn’t going to get any more.
This is an eloquent reading of why the Campbell Johnstone announcement matters, from Sam Brooks in The Spinoff.
This week, Campbell Johnstone is a headline. By making history, he’s also made a sacrifice. He will be the first openly gay All Black for the rest of his life. He’s never going to be just one guy among a bunch of guys ever again. But he’s made it possible for others to be.
Unless you’re a true hoops addict - and there are plenty out there - the NBA regular season can be a bit same-same.
But it’s time to get on the LeBron watch.
It’s also time to re-hit this interactive feature from ESPN, tracking LeBron James’ quest to overhaul Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s NBA points-scoring record. James plays today against the Indiana Pacers. He’s not likely to score the 89 he needs today, but if he has two great games, he could do so against the New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday.
The only stain on this record is he’ll do it in an Los Angeles Lakers singlet, his third different NBA team (two stints at Cleveland and one ultra-successful spell at Miami Heat) and the one he’ll least be associated with when he retires.
THE WEEKEND THAT WILL BE
With a little luck this weekend will not be so rain-radar focused.
It feels unpatriotic not to follow unwell Ryan Fox’s progress as he defends his title in one of the least known Emirates in the United Arab Emirates.
Ras Al Khaimah Championship, final round Sunday 9.30pm, Sky Sport 6
In the women it’s a case of waiting for the finals, but there are a couple of critical men’s round robin matchups this weekend.
ND v CD, Hamilton, tonight 6.40pm, Spark Sport
Canterbury v Otago, Christchurch, tomorrow 1.40pm, Spark Sport
It’s not an amazing slate of Premier League action, but relegation-threatened Everton have a new boss, Sean Dyche, with a big first-up assignment.
Everton v Arsenal, Goodison Park, Sunday 1.30am, Sky Sport EPL
Warrenball returns to Cardiff where Wales meets Ireland in a tasty Six Nations clash. Gatland hates the term Warrenball, which is a dig at the way his teams are deemed to play narrow, crash-ball rugby where the gain-line is king, but he won’t give a toss what they call it if his return is triumphant.
Wales v Ireland, Cardiff, Sunday 3.15am, Sky Sport 1
Elsewhere, the NZ Grand Prix is at Hampton Downs (Sky) and the Breakers end their regular season tomorrow in Brisbane (Sky), but I’ll be keeping my powder dry, which is really tricky in this weather, until the playoffs.
Gidday Dylan That's an excellent piece on Ajaz. Congrats. I reckon the very least NZC could have done was to have a special presentation to Ajaz before the first Bay Oval test against Bangladesh last year. It would have been so easy for them to ask Ajaz for the ball, have it mounted appropriately and then made a deal of presenting it to him. That's the very least he deserved for his historic effort. The fact no one at NZC thought of this shows just how cloth-eared they can be.
I like the way your stats show up the ineptitude of the selector(s) when it comes to picking and using spinners. I guess various NZ captains are culpable on this score too. Williamson, who I admire as a player, captain and person, has to shoulder more than some of the blame for Ajaz's treatment. I'm sure he has a big say in selection. His use of Ajaz in NZ conditions in his wicketless home test career hardly gave Ajaz the chance to shine. I'd hazard a guess that Ajaz bowled most of his 29 overs in home tests in defensive mode. There may have been a token slip, possibly a short cover and short mid-wicket to stop the single and that'd be about it. I'd also guess that quite a high proportion of Ajaz's overs would have been three overs before tea, lunch or the close of play. The rest would've been bowled defensively because no-one else looked like taking a wicket.
Another illuminating stat featuring Santner's first class record shows he's played 88 matches, taken 86 wickets at 47.22 with a best of 4/111 and a strike rate of 96.2. The contrast with Ajaz's first class record is stark.
Finally the highlight of the day for me at the CD v ND one dayer yesterday was seeing Ajaz dismiss former Captain Kane after Williamson had smacked him over mid wicket for six and two fours. Adding to the satisfaction was the fact that Will Young took the catch. He's another who has been somewhat poorly treated by the NZ selectors but I won't get into that. Patel finished with 3/38 off his 10 overs and on a day where the left arm spinners shone (four of them) Ajaz looked pretty darn good.
So there you go. Good on you for giving NZC a good serve about their treatment of Ajaz. The pity of it is that for all our (and many, many others) grizzling about it, it won't make any difference.
Cheers and keep up the good work
Peter
Agree Dylan. We seem to be very poor at player management, spinners especially - Kane never seemed to know when to bowl any of his spinners and would only do so reluctantly and maybe to improve our over rate.
About Jamieson - I hope they only play him if he’s 100% ready. He seems to be a confidence player more than most and if he struggles in his first up experience in months, it will do medium term damage to him I think.