To lead or not to lead
Is Kane Williamson really thinking of stepping back from test captaincy?
Notes from Headingley #1
NZ 225-5
It was interesting to note that Simon Doull urging Williamson to step down as test captain earned a few headlines leading into this third test.
Williamson captaining all three formats has been an ongoing discussion among the power brokers within New Zealand Cricket’s high-performance set up, particularly after seeing the toll the 2019 World Cup and its aftermath took on him.
Through the vagaries of a long-term elbow injury, procreation, IPL commitments, planned rest and Covid, Williamson has effectively rotated in and out of the squad over the past three years. While this might have reduced the burden somewhat, leadership extends beyond the boundary.
Said Doull:
“He is without doubt the best player we’ve ever produced outside of Sir Richard Hadlee. He is world class and I’d love him to be just the best player we’ve ever seen, and if that means giving up the Test captaincy to prolong his career, I think he should...
“I just don’t know that he can sustain all three formats. I would rather he was just New Zealand’s one-day and T20 captain.
“When you’ve got a really worthy replacement, and Tom Latham is, I think that is the easiest time to transition and walk away from it. New Zealand don’t play another test until the autumn [after Headingley], so it is not a bad time after the Leeds Test to do it.”
It’s tempting to say that Doull must have some inside oil, spending as much time as he does on the circuit with these players, but the man himself neatly sidestepped the speculation.
“The picture of leadership in this side is something I’m very passionate about,” Williamson enigmatically said on the eve of the third test, which started at Headingley overnight.
There is merit to what Doull is proposing, though this writer would far rather see the formats flipped and for Williamson to give up leading the side in white-ball cricket. Yes, test cricket requires more work, but there is less of it and it’s more important.
There’s also the awkward truth that Latham, Doull’s ready-made replacement, has a job on his hands to rebuild his test batting after his horror tour continued on the first day at Headingley. Unless he can figure out the around-the-wicket opening attacks he’s going to face for the rest of his career, he could start to face as many questions about his place in the side as he does about strategy and tactics. That just gets messy.
Yes, if Williamson kept the (c) in tests and gave it up for white-ball, it could mean three different captains across three formats but I’m not sure there’s a lot wrong with building leadership depth.
It is a subject worth keeping an eye on.
After two tests that saw the birth of Baz-ball and had Ben Stokes quoted as saying his colleagues needed to see themselves as entertainers, New Zealand said, “Not so fast!”
Wowee, that was a grind, best demonstrated by Henry Nicholls’ 99-ball 19.
You know those dreams you have that no matter how hard you’re trying to chase something or do something and you just quite get there? Well, Nicholls’ batting was the fully conscious version of it.
Watching him push, prod and play-and-miss was grim but gripping viewing. By about the 60-ball mark, when you knew this was not a battle that was likely to resolve itself in a flourish of boundaries, it became easy to admire the struggle; to will Nicholls on to some sort of epic homage to Geoff Boycott on the Yorkshireman’s home ground.
So for it to end how it did was worse than cruel.
The irony being that after spending more than two hours trying to find the sweet spot, Nicholls hit the middle of two bats in one ill-fated shot.
It might be even more cruel to note that at that point, Daryl Mitchell had been indirectly involved in as many dismissals of teammates this series - Nicholls here and the Will Young and Tim Southee run outs at Trent Bridge - as he had been dismissed himself.
There are various reasons New Zealand has lost this series, some small, some big, but none have loomed as large as the collective failure of the top four.
Latham: 45 runs @ an average of 9
Will Young: 125 runs @ 25
Williamson: 48 runs @ 16
Devon Conway: 140 runs @ 28
Nicholls (Trent Bridge): 33 runs @ 16.5
You’re not going to win many series when nobody among you top four can post big numbers, but it did at least provide another platform for some more Mitchell-Tom Blundell magic.
Shunted one place down the order to accommodate the returning Williamson and a bulked up batting lineup, it was the sixth-wicket partnership rather than fifth that provided the only heft to the innings.
Mitchell (78 not out) continues to astound, nudging beyond 450 runs for the series. In a recent piece in CODE ($), Mitchell talked about how pleasing his Trent Bridge success was in that it displayed a “professional mindset” not to rest on his laurels after his Lord’s ton.
Of that innings at the Home of Cricket, he reiterated that he felt he didn’t deserve to be up on the honours board next to the greats. That’s nonsense, obviously, but if he feels sheepish about that, imagine how he’s going to feel if he adds 22 more runs tonight.
He’ll join this list of greats who have scored centuries in three consecutive away tests: Don Bradman, Jack Fingleton, Everton Weekes, Neil Harvey, Sunil Gavaskar, Jack Hobbs, Wally Hammond, Garry Sobers, Ken Barrington, Chris Broad, David Boon, Brian Lara, Ricky Ponting, Graeme Smith, Andrew Strauss and Alastair Cook.
Not many duds there.
Mitchell’s brilliance has somewhat eclipsed Blundell (45 not out), but if anything Blundell looked the more secure this morning.
He had to go upstairs to rescue himself when he was wrongly given out caught behind for 31, but there were not many other scares.
Mitchell himself was fortunate England didn’t call for a review when he was trapped stone-cold, motherless leg before for eight off Matt Potts. When it’s going your way, make the most of it.
THE WEEK THAT WAS
Trevor McKewen had a different take on NZR’s Reimagining Rugby presentation ($) than Madeleine Chapman did, whose piece was highlighted on Wednesday.
McKewen said NZR was refocusing its role as being rugby’s shepherd.
Several subjects of legitimate importance were aired, including a public commitment around board diversity of 50% by 2024, a pledge made by O’Brien and endorsed by [CEO Mark] Robinson.
That diversity, explained O’Brien, included Māori and Pasifika representation as well as females…
Former All Black Eroni Clarke, the national union’s first ever “Pasifika engagement manager”, spoke passionately of the need to involve more Māori and Polynesians in governance roles across all rugby while understanding cultural nuances such as the need to be asked to provide support rather than relying on individual ambition.
NZ Rugby has a lot of work to do, at home and abroad.
Sad news this week with the loss of former Rugby News editor Dave Campbell.
I didn’t know Dave as well as a number of my former colleagues but he was your archetypal good bastard.
My most vivid memory of Dave was carpooling to Hamilton one Friday night for a Chiefs match and him picking a relatively obscure Jeff Buckley song off my carefully curated “mix CD” after hearing one note, two at the most.
RIP, Dave.
THE WEEKEND THAT WILL BE
Apart from the continuation of the England v NZ cricket (tonight-Monday starts 10pm, Spark Sport), I’m sticking clear of appointment viewing this weekend, though I will probably make an exception for State of Origin II (Sunday, 9pm, Sky Sport 4).
Other than that I might tool around the channels as the NHL’s Stanley Cup final reaches its conclusion and Wimbledon gets underway, but it feels like a good weekend to recharge.
That would be an iconic win that one🤞🏻
Great read as always but maaaate you forgot Ruth Croft going for the win at Western States this weekend 😁