White out, but who's next in is critical to NZC
A steely Gaze features in The Week That Was, while the Weekend That Will Be heads to Eden Park.
OPINION:
Like Elvis, he exited the building a wee while ago, but today marked the official last day of New Zealand Cricket’s long-time chief executive David White.
He leaves having overseen a period of tumult - NZC had no money, an earthquake wiped out head office and the national men’s team was near dysfunctional - that ultimately turned into the greatest era in the Black Caps’ history. He calls stumps having been an intimate witness to cricket’s explosion onto the global sports and entertainment consciousness in a way that would have been unrecognisable a generation ago.
White has his critics. Like former rugby boss Steve Tew, he never cut the most sympathetic of public figures and is known to have little patience for people he doesn’t rate, but what White has has done without apology is to turn NZC from an organisation in service to its six Major Associations to a high performance-focused business with a rampantly commercial outlook.
Alongside former chairman and fellow Gisbornean Greg Barclay, White carved NZC an outsized role in global cricket politics. They did so in large part by buddying up to global behemoths England, Australia and most particularly India - the self-styled Big Three.
With Barclay now the master of ceremonies at the ICC, current NZC chairman Martin Snedden’s tenure ending soon, and White pondering his next career move, there is potential for a leadership vacuum at NZC that has some stakeholders worried.
Chief financial officer Rob Campbell will serve as interim CEO as the board narrows its search for White’s replacement, but he is not thought to have permanent designs on the role.
Several names have been floating around the cricketing ether as possible CEO, including NZC head of commercial Chris Smith and Sport NZ boss Raelene Castle, who was on the shortlist when White got the job.
The board is understood to be interviewing candidates in the next few weeks.
In discussions with several cricket insiders, many have expressed concerns regarding the focus and performance of the board, saying it has turned its gaze inward and has spent far too much time leaning into cultural issues and nice-to-haves.
One source said: “It’s the right time for him [White] to go. He has to work with a board that now spends hours talking about climate change and minutes talking about high performance.”
While White and the Major Associations were not necessarily bosom buddies, it is understood that they shared the same concerns over the board, which is fully independent. The Bounce learned that Snedden recently canvassed the associations with a view to an extension but was told that idea would not be supported.
While Diane Puketapu, who replaced Richard Hadlee on the board in 2017, will likely step into the chair after Snedden, many believe the appointment of the next CEO is the critical appointment. The international game is under immense pressure to rationalise to make room for the financial powerhouse that is franchise T20 cricket. Without a money-spinning domestic franchise competition - the Super Smash is T20’s version of the village green - the Black Caps’ pre-eminence on the international stage is paramount.
One source said the role of the NZC executive was not complicated. It had two functions: to do deals with India and to fund high performance. The organisation, they said, was in a similar position to New Zealand Rugby in that respect: it didn’t really matter where you input the numbers, the success of the All Blacks/ Black Caps was fundamental to the success of NZR/ NZC.
New Zealand has profited on and off the field in recent times because the Big Three, particularly India and England, see value in playing the Black Caps. An inbound tour from India is like gold because you’re selling the rights into a broadcast market that cannot get enough cricket.
Things can change quickly in that space, however.
Another source said the framing of the CEOs role as purely to engage with India and fund the Blacks Caps had truth to it, but was too simplistic.
The source said there was a culture and community aspect to the role that had been largely ignored by White, pointing to NZC’s “shrug-of-the-shoulders” attitude to the disastrous roll-out of digital scoring and registration service PlayHQ as evidence that NZC did not care enough about what was happening at the lower reaches of the game.
Whatever way you slice it up: the appointment politics of one of New Zealand’s biggest NSOs is going to make for intriguing theatre over the next few months.
THE WEEK THAT WAS
I have been enjoying the UCI world championships on YouTube, even if I seldom manage to find the right stream at the right time and have found the event website an impenetrable maze of misery.
I’ve previously mentioned Ellesse Andrews impressive front-running performance in the keirin, which was followed up by bronze in the sprint. Michaela Drummond and Bryony Botha have also put New Zealand on the podium in track endurance events.
Over the past 36 hours we’ve also seen powerhouse performances from Aaron Gate (track, points race) and Sam Gaze (cross country, short track).
Gate was the supreme alpha in one of the toughest events in cycling, a 40km track race with 15 intermediate sprints, a final sprint and 20 points on offer for lapping the peloton. It is a tactical minefield on top of aerobic sadism. Gate, who won the omnium a decade ago, put on a masterclass. It wasn’t close.
Gaze was similarly impressive in the short course cross country, retaining his world title. Famously intense - infamously intense, even - Gaze remains one of the most fascinating athletes we have.
Following his Commonwealth Games gold medal on the Gold Coast in 2018 I was asked to write a profile on the rivalry between him and Anton Cooper, who finished 10th today. At first I was reluctant, mainly because I thought the opprobrium heaped upon Gaze for giving the middle finger in a moment of pique was over the top (if I remember correctly, the New Zealand Olympic Committee management even wheeled him out for an unnecessary - and hopefully insincere - apology). The more people I talked to on and off the record, however, the more interested I became in Gaze.
With Gaze, it’s… complex. After canvassing a number of people in New Zealand’s small but robust cycling community, one adjective stood out when connected to Gaze in the word association game: intense. That intensity can rub people the wrong way.
“That would be a fair comment,” says Mark ‘Cabin’ Leishman, one of the godfathers of New Zealand mountain biking, whose long career has seen him cross generations, competing at one point against Gaze’s father Chris, all the way through to a young Cooper.
“Sam has always had that burning intensity. He always had a more obvious outward confidence about what he was doing than Anton,” he says. “People noticed, yeah.”
At 27 years old and entering his peak, I’d be very surprised if this was the last rainbow jersey of Gaze’s career.
As for the cycling team as a whole, it always pays to be wary of results in non-Olympic years, but after years of turmoil and tragedy off the boards, things appear to be progressing well on them.
I get really toey when I chip in my $40 stake for the monthly poker school.
Phil Mickelson’s former gambling partner Billy Walters reckons Leftie has made about US$1 billion worth of wagers through the years and has accumulated about $100 million in losses.
The biggest revelation is that Mickelson wanted to bet $400,000 on the Ryder Cup while he was playing in it. You can read the full excerpt from Walters book on The Fire Pit Collective here, but here is the key tract:
In late September 2012, Phil called me from Medinah Country Club just outside Chicago, site of the 39th Ryder Cup matches between the United States and Europe. He was feeling supremely confident that the American squad led by Tiger Woods, Bubba Watson, and Phil himself was about to reclaim the Cup from the Euros. He was so confident that he asked me to place a $400,000 wager for him on the US team to win.
I could not believe what I was hearing.
“Have you lost your f***ing mind?” I told him. “Don’t you remember what happened to Pete Rose?” The former Cincinnati Reds manager was banned from baseball for betting on his own team. “You’re seen as a modern-day Arnold Palmer,” I added. “You’d risk all that for this? I want no part of it.’’
“Alright, alright,” he replied.
I have no idea whether Phil placed the bet elsewhere. Hopefully, he came to his senses.
Mickelson, in a statement to Sports Illustrated, denied betting on the Ryder Cup.
“I never bet on the Ryder Cup,” Mickelson said. “While it is well known that I always enjoy a friendly wager on the course, I would never undermine the integrity of the game. I have also been very open about my gambling addiction. I have previously conveyed my remorse, took responsibility, have gotten help, have been fully committed to therapy that has positively impacted me, and I feel good about where I am now.”
There is a really complicated back story to the Mickelson-Walters friendship that turned into a feud.
Per SI: “In 2017, Walters was convicted of insider trading and served a five-year prison sentence. Mickelson became embroiled in the controversy, because he allegedly received stock tips from Walters under the guise of using the profits to repay Walters for his gambling debts. Mickelson was never charged but was a relief defendant in Walters’s case and was required to pay back some $1 million—plus interest—he made in the stock deal. Under the advice of counsel, he declined to testify at the trial. In the book, Walters wrote that Mickelson ‘refused to tell a simple truth’ that could have kept him from going to prison.”
There has long been rumours that Mickelson was in deep with Greg Norman and LIV Golf from the start because he urgently needed to repay gambling debts.
No Quade Cooper, no Michael Hooper. No Len Ikatau. Eddie Jones has made some big calls.
“They’re terrible phone calls, mate,” Jones told reporters. “You never like to tell a player he’s not in the squad.
“You just sent me back about four weeks ago, I went up and watched a game in Coffs Harbour and caught up with my old schoolboy coach Geoff Mould. We went over and sat by the scrum machine. He’s close to 90 now and he said, ‘I want you to tell me the truth now.’ He said, ‘Did you blame me for being left out of the Australian Schoolboys?’
“He’s still feeling that hurt of leaving me out in 1977.”
To be fair to Jones, he did admit the calls were tougher on Hooper and Cooper than they were on him, but you have to admire the way he turned a World Cup selection bombshell into a story about his own career misfortune.
There will always be a debate about whether it’s ‘sport’, but the politics and ethics of scaling the world’s tallest peaks are always fraught, particularly around the interactions with distressed climbers.
The topic was thrust back into the headlines this week when footage emerged of climbers on a record-breaking expedition stepping over dying sherpa Mohammad Hassan on their way to the summit of K2, the world’s second-highest peak.
Austria’s Standard newspaper, via the Daily Mail, quoted mountaineer Philip Flamig:
“The fact is that there was no organised rescue operation although there were Sherpas and mountain guides on site who could have taken action.” [Record-breaking Norwegian alpinist Kristin] Harila and her team members were among those climbers.
He called the death a “disgrace” and said “such a thing would be unthinkable in the Alps” - referencing the ongoing debate about how Sherpas are used in the Himalayas.
“If he had been a Westerner, he would have been rescued immediately. No one felt responsible for him… A living human was left lying so that records could be set.”
THE WEEK THAT WAS
First up, the family are taking me to the World Cup quarter-final between Japan and Sweden at Eden Park tonight. So far, I’ve been an expert in watching 0-0 draws, so here’s hoping I break that curse. Given that sport always has just a little more frisson when you want one team to win more than the other, I’ve been trying to invent a reason for choosing either team. Ultimately, it’s Henning Mankell for the win (even if his novels did paint a rather bleak picture of Swedish society).
Oh, and the below match should be a cracker as well, though I will watch the last hour on delay.
Australia v France, WWC QF, Brisbane, tomorrow 7pm, Sky Sport 1
As hard as you might try to find a banana skin element, if the Warriors fall to Wests in the Tron, then they’re not the team I think they are (and to make it clear I think they’re very, very good and disagree with the oddsmakers who have them as fourth favourites). Before that, Parramatta travel to The Gabba tonight and they desperately need a win to revive their playoff chances while doing the Warriors a big favour at the same time.
Brisbane v Parramatta, Brisbane, tonight 10pm, SS 4
Wests v NZ Warriors, Hamilton, tomorrow 7.30pm, SS 4
There’s not a heck of a lot hinging on the Summer Nations Series but the All Blacks are set to meet one of these teams in the first match of the World Cup (and possibly, if it goes to plan, the last match), and I’m giving the other team a fighting chance of getting out of a pool also involving South Africa and Ireland.
France v Scotland, Saint-Etienne, Sunday 7.05am, SS1
I’m not certain there is an easy way to watch Shane van Gisbergen’s second crack at Nascar, when he races in the 200 at the Brickyard in Indianapolis on Monday. A subscriber did mention accessing a free YouTube Live trial but it all seems a bit messy.
Shame really, but as a poor substitute, here’s SVG talking to Nascar legend Dale Earnhardt Jr about his future (and independent rear suspension).
He had incredible things to say about Supercars, which you suspect is going to get him in a world of trouble.
“The qualifying [in Supercars] is awesome, but the racing sucks. It’s so boring. You’re driving around at 30 percent trying to keep the tyres and everyone is just following each other… It’s mind numbing. You come here and the race is just a hustle the whole time.”
SHORTS
Lydia Ko is way off the pace in the Women’s Open Championship at Walton Heath, the NPC continues and North Harbour v Canterbury at the could-be-demolished-shortly North Harbour Stadium is a decent Sunday arvo matchup.
The Premier League returns. The pick of the opening weekend games is either Newcastle hosting Aston Villa at 4.30am on Sunday, or last season’s two underachievers, Chelsea v Liverpool on Monday morning (3.30am). Adding spice to the latter match, it appears Liverpool have ‘beaten’ Chelsea for the signature of Brighton’s highly rated midfielder Moses Caicedo. All it took was £110m. Strewth.
NB. Apologies for a really messy few pars in the lead item today (including a missing word or two). I made some changes while doing something else and proved the point nicely that I am not built for multitasking.
I found the "cultural issues and nice-to-haves" point interesting. Whether they should be focussing on such things (and how much) is obviously open to debate, but if it has indeed been such a high priority for them, how on Earth were they so tone-deaf in their handling of the Scott Kuggeleijn case?