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*Unofficial* New Zealand Black Caps Thread

Chubb

International Regular
I’m reading the book at the moment. It’s very ghostwritten, all these sports bios seem to have the same voice, it’s quite predictable.
 

Prince EWS

Global Moderator
I’m reading the book at the moment. It’s very ghostwritten, all these sports bios seem to have the same voice, it’s quite predictable.
Yeah I don't read them anymore for this reason. I'd probably be interested in reading the actual players' notes for the books, but the gist of those is usually reported by the media anyway.
 
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nzfan

International Vice-Captain
Am I right here?

Have we played Rippon in a single T20I, and now he would be unavailable for Netherlands in upcoming T20 world cup?

Man, we are dirty ****ers.
Yeah pointed this out a while ago. That said he'll get to play for NZ A in India. There's a test series and t20/one day cricket tour at the end of the month. Not sure why nzc hasn't announced that
 

Chubb

International Regular
Taylor is also incredibly superstitious, not quite to McKenzie levels but well beyond most players.

Some superstitions he had: only used two pairs of batting trousers his entire test career and once drove from Tauranga to Hamilton and back the night before a test because he realised he'd left them at home; had to wash his own gear before a game (nobody else could do it for him, not even his family); never ate duck during the season despite it being his favourite; Victoria had to book all his barber appointments because the last time he did it himself he got a duck.

All cricketers have superstitions of one kind or another of course but for someone to operate at the level he did for so long with them is kind of interesting.
 
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Bahnz

Hall of Fame Member
Loved the bit about him driving in a mates car to a game at McLane park in 2006 where he scored his first hundred, so he subsequently always took their car to games at Napier from then onwards.
 

straw man

Hall of Fame Member
To no one's surprise, Boult is confirmed for the UAE T20 league.

International calendar has us playing 2 tests in that Jan-Feb period, starting 16th Feb.
Pretty rat **** if this does indeed mean he misses the home tests v England.

I did notice the NZ contract requires that you play domestic Super Smash when available and wondered if the thrust of Boult forgoing the contract might be more of that (and the long overseas tours) which I could half understand. But missing a home test series would be.... something else.

Don't think the exact schedule of the ILT20 has been announced yet so still hoping he'll be back in time.
 

Zinzan

Request Your Custom Title Now!
Disappointing batting performance from NZ in the Last T20 after batting well in the 1st couple of games & yet another sub 100 SR from Williamson following his horrid IPL form.

Not sure we can continue carrying Williamson in our T20 side for 1 knock every 10 innings like he played in T20 WC final when the rest of the time he's dotting up for innings like 20 off 23.

I'd prefer Allen & Chapman to KW and Mitchell in our top XI, although would like the see Mitchell in the squad on Australian decks.

That would be a top 6 of; (3 lefties, 3 righties)

Guptill
Allen
Conway +
Chapman
Phillips
Neesham

And captain could be Santner, Guptill or Conway (anyone?) ..
 

Zinzan

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Re: Taylor - I couldn't stomach watching anything more than about 15 mins of the Sky Interview with Laura McGoldrick.

I totally get the whole captaincy dumping would have been incredibly tough for the guy on a personal note, but I do find it hard to believe McCullum himself (& Henson to a lesser extent) would have made things any more awkward or difficult for Taylor when he came back into the side than they naturally were by default.

Nothing I've every heard about McCullum would indicate he'd be the kind of bloke who'd go out of his way to be a prick to a fellow team mate in that sort of situation. I wonder if Taylor was just very sensitive & guarded thereafter, and maybe justifiably so.
 

Bahnz

Hall of Fame Member
The most interesting thing I’m finding in reading the book is how Ross flat out admits that Baz was just better suited to dealing with all the malcontents in the side. Like Mills and Oram would be openly talking about how bad Ross was and Taylor would say “Baz would deal with this head on but I’m just not that kinda bloke.”
 

Chubb

International Regular
The most interesting thing I’m finding in reading the book is how Ross flat out admits that Baz was just better suited to dealing with all the malcontents in the side. Like Mills and Oram would be openly talking about how bad Ross was and Taylor would say “Baz would deal with this head on but I’m just not that kinda bloke.”
Yeah and a lot of the comments from others didn’t disagree McCullum was a better captain, or even that Hesson had a right to change it, they just really didn’t like how Taylor was treated. Many of us on here felt that way at the time.
 
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Flem274*

123/5
Yeah just came to post I compared the Taylor version with the McCullum version and in both the senior players come out looking terrible.

Childish mid thirties men who aren't even performing and, with rare exception, should have held no sway in the team at the time.

I think it's pretty funny the first act McCullum made in crisis after South Africa was to cut most of those players who were thinking everything would be different if "their guy" was in charge.

Went through scorecards and named players in both books and because of how young we were it's easy to figure out that group were Mills, Oram, Patel, Franklin and Martin. Chris Martin doesn't strike me as a stirrer either....

So Taylor's biggest mistake was not cutting cancer, because I reckon the same seniors McCullum mentioned were playing up would have pushed back on his attempted culture change.

I also suspect both players were essentially middle management victims/pawns of higher ups playing politics with them.

Dressing room cancer doesn't set in overnight either. The ball was dropped during Vettori's era imo.
 

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