Taylor offers up a teachable moment
A money-trap Week That Was and A Weekend That Will Be that was not written while drunk - it just reads like that.
Ross Taylor’s book hit the shelves and so did various excerpts and news stories on the major websites. I’m reluctant to dig too deeply into it until I’ve had a proper read, but the two most obvious touchstones are the captaincy “coup”, which was anticipated, and claims of racism, which were perhaps less so.
The captaincy saga was poorly handled and it caused huge upheaval in Taylor’s life. At my most flippant, I want to say that the right thing happened in the wrong way. Brendon McCullum gave his version of it, not always convincingly, in Declared six years ago, now it’s Taylor’s turn in Black & White. Again, I’ll pay it due attention in a subsequent post but it is an indication of just how wretchedly the whole issue played out that 10 years later a change of captaincy, which happens all the time in sports, is still being pored over.
The racism issue is thorny and, according to a couple of sources, Taylor is disappointed it has been the subject of such scrutiny given the relatively minor part it plays in the book. It is important that it is addressed, however, and that it is taken seriously.
I have zero doubt that what Taylor felt was very real and, to use a contemporary term, is his lived experience. Dressing rooms are fragile ecosystems. The concept of “banter” is loaded because the experience of it is markedly different depending if you’re the banterer or the banteree. All bantz is designed at heart to cause mild humiliation. Believe it or not, this can be quite healthy as long as it is not always the same couple of players doing the humiliating, and the same couple of players being humiliated. It’s the lingua franca of the changing room and helps to keep people loose in what is a high-pressure, high-stress environment.
There are topics, however, where banter is never OK. Making someone feel smaller because of who they are is off limits. Taylor was aware he was an “anomaly” in the changing rooms. This is what he said to Laura McGoldrick on Sky:
“Other players also had to put up with comments that dwelt on their ethnicity. In all probability, a Pakeha listening to those sorts of comments would think, ‘Oh, that’s okay, it’s just a bit of banter’. But he’s hearing it as white person, and it’s not directed at people like him. So, there’s no pushback; no one corrects them.
“Then the onus falls on the targets. You wonder if you should pull them up but worry that you’ll create a bigger problem or be accused of playing the race card by inflating harmless banter into racism. It’s easier to develop a thick skin and let it slide, but is that the right thing to do?”
Every word of this rings true. The targets don’t react because they’re worried they will be a bad teammate, so they let it fester, all the time feeling just that little bit smaller.
New Zealand Cricket and the Players’ Association need to take this seriously. It should be a teachable moment, to use another contemporary term. Having watched this team operate from varying distances over the past 25 years, I don’t think the dressing room environment has ever been as healthy as it is now, but it can get better.
The lesson is simple: banter is banter if it’s aimed at something you’ve done; it’s bullying if it’s aimed at who you are.
Depending on how much peace and quiet I get over the weekend, I will have a full review and analysis for a Midweek Book Club on Wednesday.
THE WEEK THAT WAS
The Trent Boult bombshell was a timely reminder, as was Taylor’s book in some respects, that it feels like this generation of Black Caps, the finest in history, is at the end of something rather than in the middle. In Cricinfo, Sidharth Monga writes portentously. Cricket itself is at a tipping point, too.
This is a significant moment in the rapid process of normalising not sacrificing it all for an international career. A realisation that what once used to be the ultimate dream - a central contract, 100 Tests, 400 wickets, world titles, the satisfaction of winning an away test series - can seem like shackles to some. And that it is okay to break those shackles. To Boult, this realisation has dawned at a point where he is already a superstar of the game; to some others, it might come sooner.
This was so cool. Awww. Onions. Those earrings though? Not sure.
It was a good week, bad week for LIV Golf.
The bad: losing a restraint of trade court case in embarrassing fashion.
“Based on this evidence, [temporary restraining order] Plaintiffs have not even shown that they have been harmed - let alone irreparably,” Judge Beth Labson Freeman wrote in her ruling. “It is clear that the LIV Golf contracts negotiated by the TRO Plaintiffs and consummated between the parties were based on the players’ calculation of what they would be leaving behind and the amount of money they would need to compensate for those losses. [The] plaintiffs have signed contracts that richly reward them for their talent and compensate for lost opportunity through [PGA Tour] play. In fact, the evidence shows almost without a doubt that they will be earning significantly more money with LIV Golf than they could reasonably have expected to make through Tour play over the same time period.”
The good: they signed the hottest player on the planet in Cameron Smith.
Writes Oliver Brown for the Telegraph in the linked piece:
Here lies the sadness in Smith’s defection. With his talent in the fullest bloom, he deserves to be playing in front of the largest galleries, for the highest stakes. LIV, ultimately, offers him neither. It is a realm with all the money but none of the prestige...
For Smith to be swapping such moments [as winning the Claret Jug at St Andrews] for hollow, show-me-the-money exercises is a cause for lament. At one level, his departure in his prime demonstrates the scale of the Saudis’ ambitions. But at another, it is the grimmest possible reflection of the schism they have wrought.
This is one of the most momentous stories of our times and honestly, for someone who has always enjoyed playing but never watching, I never knew professional golf could be so interesting.
THE WEEKEND THAT WILL BE
All Blacks. Springboks. Ellis Park. Last chance. Ian Foster. Razor. Freedom Cup (yes, looked it up).
Four changes. NZR. Sam Cane. Backlash. Silver Lake - buyer’s regret. Lineout drive. Box kick. Legacy.
Richie starts. Beauden benched. 3am. Cheese on toast. Hostile host. JK. Blown away. What else do I have to say?
James McOnie could turn this test into a song. Me? Jury’s out would be the kindest way of putting it.
The literary horrors of above should not detract from what shapes as one of the pivotal 80 minutes in All Black modern history. It’s an alarm-setting moment. Foster didn’t start the fire, but he’s running out of hosepipe to put it out.
South Africa v All Blacks, Rugby Championship, Sunday 3.05am, Sky Sport 1
The big guns were back and played well in the defeat of West Indies in the first T20. Foot on the throat time. These are worrying times for the West Indies, whose players don’t seem that interested in playing for the once-powerful multi-country conglomerate. And Sabina Park was looking a bit ratty too.
West Indies v New Zealand, Kingston, tomorrow 6.30am, Sky Sport 1
A big London derby between the two clubs best placed to break the City-Liverpool duopoly (William Gallas thinks so) is the most mouth-watering clash of the round.
Chelsea v Tottenham, Stamford Bridge, Monday 3.30am, Sky EPL
Why do I keep doing this to myself?
NZ Warriors v Canterbury, Auckland, tonight 8pm, Sky Sport 4
The NZ NBL final is on Saturday night but I’m too heartbroken after Taranaki butchered their semifinal against Rob Loe’s Auckland. The NPC and Farah Palmer Cup is in full swing, but I’m not there yet.
Correction: I mentioned last time out that Justin Marshall went to Mataura High, which doesn’t exist. It was Gore High and Mataura ‘University’ (otherwise known as the freezing works)
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I got thru two-thirds of the Taylor book last night and will finish the balance by lunch time today. I won’t spoil the plot but “boy” I don’t think there’s been a bombshell book like this in NZ cricket since Rutherford’s book in the 90s. The reason I say that is that by the time McCullum’s book came out we’d already heard most of what he had to say in snippets over the years because he commanded the narrative and the media. Ross on the other hand has kept his powder pretty dry - until now. Ross brings fresh personalities and angles to a story that won’t go away. Dylan - unfortunately I would say your fear has come true - the captaincy saga gets a LOT of attention which is sad in a way. On the other hand it is hard to put the book down….