Monday Mash-up: A bad weekend for cricket
Beaudy's back (again?), rugby's head case rumbles on slowly, a Knotty problem and Warner gets a send-off.
We’ll start with the obvious: that wasn’t a great week for New Zealand cricket.
A first test loss in Bangladesh for the men; a first T20I loss against Pakistan for the women.
First, to picturesque Sylhet, where the Black Caps lost to a Bangladesh team who were without Shakib Al Hasan, who is recovering from a finger injury and trying to enter politics, Litton Das, Taskin Ahmed and New Zealand’s tormentor at Mt Maunganui two summers ago, Ebadot Hossain.
So it’s not the fact that New Zealand lost a test in Bangladesh - they have lost plenty of white-ball games there and it was always going to happen at some stage - but that they lost to the Amstel Light version.
Even accounting for the result, it was a curious and intriguing test, with much of the interest coming before a ball was bowled.
Three’s owners Warner Bros Discovery made a late and opportunistic strike for what you suspect, once TVNZ and Sky couldn’t be tempted, were bargain-basement rights for the series. While all this free-to-air coverage is great, and an important part of NZC’s strategy, the rights landscape has become fractured and confusing for cricket fans who tend to skew older. Somehow the digital age has added complexity to watching cricket, not simplified it.
The decision to put red-hot Rachin Ravindra back in his box was not the dumbest selection of the past 10 years - that would be dropping a guy who had just taken 10 wickets in an innings - but it’s in the top three. You have to tie yourself in knots, like Luke Ronchi did, to come up with a plausible reason to omit Ravindra, whereas you only need one to choose him: Is he one of the best 11 cricketers in the country? Um… yes. Ravindra could have been selected ahead of any one of these four without the need for any elaborate explanations. In order of most logical swap to least: Ish Sodhi (test bowling average 43.2), Glenn Phillips (one test), Henry Nicholls (batting average in Asia 27.5), or Ajaz Patel (35 years old).
Ronchi’s claim that “all the batters have been playing really, really well,” is sketchy at best. It has been noted before that Henry Nicholls was afforded a longer run of failure than any New Zealand batter in the modern era, and even with the unbeaten 200 that ended that streak, still averages 27 since the World Test Championship final of 2021. By their own standards, Devon Conway and Tom Latham’s form since the start of the last home summer has been merely serviceable. This is not a call to drop them, particularly the latter two, but just for a bit more honesty from the top in assessing their form.
On to the test itself, which New Zealand spent far too long playing insipidly with the bat and recklessly with the ball as they crashed to a 150-run loss that did not flatter the hosts.
The toss was important (I remain a big fan of at least trialling a no-toss system in bilateral tests), but New Zealand did pretty well and got a lot of luck to restrict Bangladesh to 310 in the first dig. What was disconcerting and spoke to the lack of logic applied to selection was the sight of long-levered, swing-bowling Kyle Jamieson being asked to perform the Neil Wagner bump-bowling role when the actual Neil Wagner was wearing hi-vis on the sideline. Did they play one too many spinners? It seems obvious in hindsight that two average spinners can do the role of three average spinners.
That might be a little harsh, dismissive even, but as a collective New Zealand’s spinners bowled poorly across the test, with too many long-hopping release balls. We shouldn’t be surprised by this. Glenn Phillips, who was probably the pick of the spinners, is a part timer, Ajaz Patel has been playing Plunket Shield in New Zealand springtime conditions and Ish Sodhi has been carted around various net facilities in India (now there’s a selection that made little sense to start with and even less to end with) for the past two months. “Here you go boys, we haven’t got time for a warm-up match, but go and win a test for us please.” Patel and Sodhi went for a collective 4.41 runs per over across the test, which is way too high. Frontline spinners should not be buying wickets on turning tracks.
The chase was awful, but New Zealand’s biggest batting crimes came in the first innings when they left at least 50-80 runs out there. The Kane Williamson-Daryl Mitchell partnership and Williamson-Phillips threatened to be match defining, but both ended with whimpers.
New Zealand batted half a run per over slower than the hosts in the first innings and a significant .8 RPO slower in the second. This points to both Bangladesh’s better accuracy and field settings, but also to a lack of intent by New Zealand’s top order. Daryl Mitchell (pictured above on the reverse-sweep) was the only batter who successfully managed to get novice skipper Nasmul Hossain Shanto putting fielders where he would rather not have had them. Conway in particular looked a shadow of his best self, propping forward timidly time and again and offering both edges of the bat to the spinners.
Despite racking up 29 test centuries, a number incomprehensible to New Zealand fans before the Age of Kane1, Williamson has never managed two in a test before. As a demonstration of how heavily New Zealand have come to rely on his runs, it felt like he had to break that barrier to have a chance of chasing 332. When he missed a straight one on 11 in the second dig, it was game over. Everybody, himself included, knew it.
Despite such a watery performance it is reasonable to expect New Zealand to figure this out. At times over the past two years this side appears primed for a full-blown descent into mediocrity, but they are nothing if not resilient.
It feels necessary to see Ravindra elevated into the playing XI, but this is a management group that has shown itself to be stubborn - which is a strength and a weakness.
The White Ferns are also stubborn - stubbornly average.
I only watched the batting innings yesterday and still expected them to defend an underwhelming 127 for 6. In the long run it is probably better that they didn’t because as eloquently as I would like to describe their batting efforts, the phrase that I keep coming back to is “farting around”.
It’s not the most delicate or insightful, I’ll grant you that, but aside from Maddy Green (43 off 28), it fits. Green was the only player to score at more than a run a ball. The rest grinded, with just 12 boundaries (no sixes) across the 120 balls.
This, sadly, feels like a team making no discernible progress in any direction.
NZ v Pakistan (W), 2nd T20I, Dunedin, tomorrow 1pm, TVNZ+
Bangladesh v NZ, 2nd test, Dhaka, starts Wednesday 4.30pm, Three Now
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The Mitchell Johnson versus the Warners feud gathers pace ahead of Australia’s home summer.
As much as Johnson appears a little unhinged when it comes to David Warner and his wife, the whole idea of dictating your own send-off to selectors is a little presumptuous.
In his column for The West Australian, Johnson, who represented Australia 256 times in all formats, wrote: “It’s been five years and David Warner has still never really owned the ball-tampering scandal.
“He has a decent overall record and some say is one of our greatest opening bats. But his past three years in test cricket have been ordinary, with a batting average closer to what a tailender would be happy with.
“Now the way he is going out is underpinned by more of the same arrogance and disrespect to our country. As we prepare for David Warner’s farewell series, can somebody please tell me why? “Why a struggling Test opener gets to nominate his own retirement date. And why a player at the centre of one of the biggest scandals in Australian cricket history warrants a hero’s send-off?”
Chloe Knott’s sudden departure from the Phoenix is clearly “more than meets the eye”, as the Herald story noted. It will be interesting to see which one of the country’s football writers will be first to reveal the catalyst for Knott’s statement that her “values no longer align with the club or current management”.
As a lawyer texted last night, indicating that we may have buried the lede in the latest reporting of the court case between hundreds of former rugby players and governing bodies including World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union and Wales Rugby.
The fascination was on who was on the list that we didn’t know before. The name that caught my eye was one-test All Black Regan King, brother of squash star Joelle, who enjoyed a long club career in Europe and recently revealed his problem gambling after ex-partners had come forward to say he tricked them out of thousands.
However, this story also contained material, according to my source, that was damning of the players’ legal team.
The release of the majority of the 295 names followed a session at the high court on Friday when a request by the players’ lawyers to establish a group litigation order (GLO) to allow the legal action to come under one umbrella, was denied. While the senior master in the case, Jeremy David Cook, appeared sympathetic to granting such an order in the future, he said it was not possible without having detailed medical records of any of the 295 players involved.
Cook also expressed his frustration with the players’ legal team, telling them: “Unless the medical records are prepared properly, we’re going to have a lot of issues. The very least one needs in a case of this kind is medical records.”
Such records were a necessity, Cook explained, as it would allow both sides to fairly pick a smaller number of cases that would serve as a proxy for all 295 players when it was finally heard in full. He also dismissed a suggestion by the claimants’ KC, Susan Rodway, that thumbnail sketches should be sufficient.
“In an individual injury case, the first thing you ask for in order to verify someone’s history is a proper medical report,” Cook told the court. “There is a process and it must be fair. When one produces a condition and prognosis report, one must supply a medical history. It seems to me that it is absolutely basic. There is no liability without causability injury.”
World Rugby and its constituents not surprisingly used the opportunity for a dig, releasing a statement that said: “The further delay to the case is regrettable and the players’ lawyers seemingly prioritising media coverage over meeting their legal obligations, is challenging for all concerned; not least the players themselves.”
Meanwhile, the plight of Andrew Coombs has been highlighted. The Wales forward, who won the Six nations in 2013, has been diagnosed with early-onset dementia and probable CTE at just 39 years old.
“The diagnosis was a heartbreaking one but it answered many questions that had been lingering in my mind and worrying me for so long. The changes [in my behaviour] put significant strain on my marriage and happiness.
“Sharing this news with my children was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.”
Confirmation today of a story that seems to have been reported seven different times in the past few weeks: Beauden Barrett has signed a deal through to the end of the 2027 World Cup cycle.
“It’s a huge privilege to put on the black jersey and one I will never take for granted. I’m still really passionate about playing alongside my brothers Scott and Jordie for Coastal, Taranaki or the All Blacks so looking forward to adding value where I can on my return from Japan. I am also grateful for the continued support from Taranaki, the Blues and New Zealand Rugby,” Barrett said in a release.
Assuming he remains fit, in form and in the good graces of new coach and selector Scott Robertson, Barrett is now in prime position for a couple of records. His try in the World Cup final took him to 43, just six shy of Doug Howlett’s 49. At his current ratio of a try every .35 tests, it will take him 20 more to hit 50 five-pointers, by which point he’ll be 10 tests shy of eyeing up the Big Daddy record - Sam Whitelock’s 153 test caps.
“I’m a huge fan of Tohu’s. He’s an unbelievable player and person who means so much to our club,” coach Andrew Webster said. “Without him and his leadership on and off the field we certainly wouldn’t be where we are right now.”
This was a funny old take on the news that Owen Farrell is stepping aside from international rugby to focus on family and mental health. There certainly should be valid concerns about the amount of vitriol modern-day athletes are exposed to via social media and the mainstream media’s role in fomenting some of that angst, but Warren Gatland is really stretching the point while comparing it to a situation where some clown got hold of his number and sent him a few silly WhatsApps.
This revelation from Futurism about Sports Illustrated was very damaging to the once iconic magazine, and to the wider sports writing industry in general.
There was nothing in Drew Ortiz’s author biography at Sports Illustrated to suggest that he was anything other than human.
“Drew has spent much of his life outdoors, and is excited to guide you through his never-ending list of the best products to keep you from falling to the perils of nature,” it read. “Nowadays, there is rarely a weekend that goes by where Drew isn’t out camping, hiking, or just back on his parents’ farm.”
The only problem? Outside of Sports Illustrated, Drew Ortiz doesn’t seem to exist. He has no social media presence and no publishing history. And even more strangely, his profile photo on Sports Illustrated is for sale on a website that sells AI-generated headshots, where he’s described as “neutral white young-adult male with short brown hair and blue eyes”.
Ortiz isn’t the only AI-generated author published by Sports Illustrated, according to a person involved with the creation of the content who asked to be kept anonymous to protect them from professional repercussions.
PICK A GOOD BUGGER TO WIN 2(!) BOOKS
Celebrated another trip around Helios late last week2. Looking back on this year, one of the personal highlights would be seeing a couple of books hit the shelves that I was intimately involved with either as author, or ghost. To celebrate, I’m offering a birthday/ Xmas package of both books, one signed by Carl, the other by yours truly:
Head On: Rugby Dementia and the Hidden Cost of Success, by Carl Hayman (Harper Collins)
Modern New Zealand Cricket Greats: From Stephen Fleming to Kane Williamson, by Dylan Cleaver (Mower)
This one has a twist though. They’re not for you and they can’t be for a Bounce subscriber. I want you to write to me at dc.thebounce@gmail.com and tell me your relationship with the person you have chosen (could be a mate, uncle, colleague… anything), why they’re such a good bloke or blokess and why they deserve something nice to happen to them.
I’ll pick the story that tickles me most, and if multiple stories tickle me equally, I’ll draw it out of a cap.
The click-through link was an interactive put together with a data journalist at the NZ Herald. It was designed to be simply and regularly updated, but I am no longer at the Herald and there is no such thing as the Herald Insights team any more, so it is stuck somewhere in the last decade!
Number of trips around the sun is a closely guarded secret but in the 35-53 range.
The White Ferns need to be better. They have an absolutely golden opportunity with a number of free to air games without competition from the men's game in early December. They could bring the public along with some heroic performances but bugger me that was a tough watch on Sunday.
I felt the toss wasn't that important. Bangladesh chose to bat and were bowled out in one day and one ball.
NZ were capable of pushing towards a lead of 150 with a bit more application and a bit less wafting at the ball turning away from them.
I'd bring Wagner in for Sodhi and Ravindra in for Nicholls. Leaves you with new ball swing, full Wags when needed and a trio of spin.