Williamson understandably carries the flag but it would be unfair to forget the contributions that someone like Ross Taylor has made to Brand NZ.
Ross Taylor. Pic/AFP
Avid readers of Shantaram, the epic story set in Mumbai may recall the Borsalino Test. It refers to a particular type of hat that emerges from being rolled up and squashed with its integrity intact. A true Borsalino bounces back into shape. The Borsalino of world cricket lives not only in Kane Williamson but in his whole New Zealand set-up.
It's hard to know if Williamson has shaped the NZ culture or whether the reverse applies. It doesn't really matter - to a man, they have re-defined what it means to be resilient, gracious and uncompromising in defeat, victory and the journey to those twin peaks. I'm sure that if Indians resigned themselves to getting the silver medal, they would choose NZ as their preferred vanquisher. Try as you might, it's almost impossible to dislike them.
Williamson understandably carries the flag but it would be unfair to forget the contributions that someone like Ross Taylor has made to Brand NZ. Over a long career, I cannot remember Taylor becoming embroiled in unseemly personal battles. Long before the Black Caps cemented their status as the Spirit of Cricket flagbearers, Taylor began forging a career that belied the brutality of his slog sweeps. Dignity has long been his legacy to the team that Williamson now marshals so adroitly. It was indeed fitting that these two batsmen were there for the icing of the cake in Southampton.
The support crew are no less admirable in terms of their ability to sustain excellence both on and off the field. Trent Boult, BJ Watling, Neil Wagner, Tom Latham...fiercely competitive but somehow they have managed to consistently behave in a manner that is consistent with the mantra. I think it comes down to the mature realisation that if you walk the tightrope or headbutt "the line", you are one hot-headed accident away from ruin. The exponents of this dangerous strategy include many of the Australians, Kagiso Rabada, Kieron Pollard, Shannon Gabriel, Ben Stokes, Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad and Jos Buttler. The Kiwis go nowhere near that invisible line but in doing so, they make a mockery of the notion that you need the 'aggro' in order to scale the summit.
My son, a budding first-grade cricketer in Brisbane, harbours futile dreams of perhaps making something of himself one day. Poor kid - no one has told him yet that his genetic heritage will kill off those dreams! He turned 18 recently and I wrote him a letter. Williamson featured heavily in that missive. Of all the cricketers in the world that I would like him to aspire to, Williamson, Hashim Amla or Jason Holder would be The Father's Choice. My message was simple...be the sort of human that any of the parents of these men would be proud of and you've got yourself a pretty special package deal.
After the disappointment of the World Cup Final loss to England in 2019, Williamson might already have been practicing another humble post-match speech when rain or India's brilliance robbed his team of their moment in the fading Hampshire sun. I've always maintained that when a team like India or Australia run hot, the Kiwis might struggle to keep up. But when it comes to consistency, their calmness under pressure, their refusal to get distracted by spot fires and the way they sneak under the enemy radar, it's hard to hate them. Maybe this is strategic genius wrapped up in the cloak of humility. When you give your opponent no ammunition to hate you, perhaps they don't try as hard. Although it's hard to imagine Virat Kohli ever not trying hard enough, even if his mum was bowling to him!
Many Indians will no doubt be familiar with the work of Rudyard Kipling, a poet whose love for India entranced me as a little boy growing up in Sri Lanka. When my son was a baby, I pinned a copy of his famous poem IF to his bedroom wall. He reads it almost every day, soaking in the wisdom of those words. I wish Kipling had written it about my son but I suspect it applies more to Williamson and his band of men, decent to the core, every last man.
So many words resonate. After losing the World Cup Final, it was "if you can wait and not be tired by waiting". Two years later, he met with "Triumph and Disaster, and treated those two impostors just the same."
NZ gambled and went into the game without a spinner. Kipling, you genius. How did you know that Williamson would "make one heap of all your winnings, and risk it on one turn of pitch and toss?"
Michael Jeh is a Brisbane-based former first-class cricketer
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