ashley bach
Cricketer Of The Year
And it just continues to get better by the day.
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Rachin -The Kiwi wonderkid
- Thread starter Xuhaib
- Start date
flibbertyjibber
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Good series to come in on against South Africa C, score some runs and be settled in the side for bigger challenges in the future. He did bat well the bits I saw.
Flem274*
123/5
Sorry guys, on a thread reread but just wanted to point out this is 100% correct. It is why we are often surprisingly good.
The greatest advantage New Zealand, Australia and England have in world sport, that not even the Americans have, is you can go from club nobody to world champion no matter where you live. It's why I will never, ever be in favour of ditching the Hawke Cup or NPC or giving too much favouritism to age group players.
I live near a town of 2000 people. It is not a rich town, though there is obv affluence around and we are far from Gizzy or Kaitaia, but we are not Cambridge or Raglan or a bunch of wankers from Epsom.
Off the top of my head we have a rugby/cricket club and athletics track, a community not for profit gym, another gym some guy runs at his house(?), a horse club, a community pool and a mini putt. I think there's a soccer team too. A couple of years ago the town won the club rugby competition using mostly local players (you will find a few not local schools in there but those guys came to the region for non-rugby reasons, and one brief Chiefs player might have coincided but I'm not sure) against much more fancied clubs because they were lucky to have some very good coaches in the area. Since then a lot of those players have gone on to professional contracts, overseas paid club rugby gigs and several about to be super rugby players. One might be an All Black at the 2027 WC fingers crossed.
A town of 2000 people produced that team who launched various players' careers. There will be even better club teams around NZ, and that is why Oceania is the best in the world at sport. You can walk in off the street to play some sport even if you weren't a superstar at school and you have an opportunity to go to the top.
Australia has this system too. It's why everyone else is screwed from the start facing the Southern Hemisphere in sport.
Yep. Have a good Kiwi friend of mine (former first class cricketer) who says this all the time. Play well for your club, you get picked for your country / province, do well there and the sky is the limit. That is really what differentiates Aus / NZ, even more so than England where I live which is much more formal.
The Hutt Rec
International Vice-Captain
Nope they were right.
Spark
Global Moderator
A lot of this is genuinely why I feel that the population base thing people throw out from time to time to prove that some nations - basically subcontinent nations - have a way easier time of it with regards to talent pool isn't really accurate. There is definitely a critical mass of fans and players that you have to maintain in order to have talent coming through but that threshold is lower than people think and after that, good structures and a strong culture matters way way way more.
thierry henry
International Coach
Yeah and the point I was making about ‘comparative luxury’ and ‘per capita facilities’ was that even within NZ, there’s a particular advantage to coming from a smaller place. My anecdotal evidence for this is partly based on being from Auckland but playing in Counties. It’s not a perfect comparison, but for example there are really only 4 clubs for 400,000 people in what would be broadly regarded as ‘South Auckland’. Then in Counties, you have clubs representing tiny population bases. I can tell you that the facilities available for the clubs representing a player base of 100,000 people are hardly any better than those for a population base of 1,000.
In a way that’s probably a microcosm of comparing NZ v India, for example.
RossTaylorsBox
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Think that's a lot to do with "South Auckland" being more heavily weighted towards Maori/PI and rugby being the main sport. Counties is more your rich white farmer types and the facilities in some of those places reflect that.
hendrix
Hall of Fame Member
Yeah I've spent some time working in some rural hospitals and they have some insanely high quality sports facilities for the population size.
Absolutely 3rd rate schools and hospitals.
But great sports facilities. You might have x ray facilities 3 only days a week, and your water quality will be either contaminated with farm run off and have permanent boil water notices or else it's non fluoridated because vaccines or something. But you'll definitely have that top-of-the-line scrum machine.
Absolutely 3rd rate schools and hospitals.
But great sports facilities. You might have x ray facilities 3 only days a week, and your water quality will be either contaminated with farm run off and have permanent boil water notices or else it's non fluoridated because vaccines or something. But you'll definitely have that top-of-the-line scrum machine.
thierry henry
International Coach
Oh 100%. But I think also just densely populated urban areas in general are gonna have less facilities per capita.
Flem274*
123/5
It's because of what Community Boards can achieve. They can't put together money for water infrastructure (it's also not their job), but they can sort out an awesome park.
thierry henry
International Coach
But also to come back to the South Auckland example - Papatoetoe is now the largest suburb in Auckland and the hub of the Indian community in Auckland. Cricket in South Auckland generally is largely Indian. There is a Papatoetoe Cricket Club, but for the most part you’d still have to say the population base is underrepresented by clubs/facilities. There are also ‘informal’ and ‘unofficial’ comps which probably attract more numbers than the actual comp. Probably getting bogged down in a tangential issue though which is that our largest base of cricket players are pretty much doing their own thing on the periphery of the club game.
Chubb
International Regular
The lack of depth in provincial cricket can be an issue for NZ, but it’s often an advantage, I think – it gives talented players the chance to sink or swim. I played in South Canterbury, North Otago and Southland and even a very average reserves player like me could face Jacob Duffy and play against other first-class or Hawke Cup players if the seniors were short. I was never going to be good enough, but there are many others who would be.
Even when I moved to Wellington where there’s greater depth, I once got asked to fill in for the Onslow senior team in a preseason game and ended up playing against the Horowhenua-Kapiti provincial side and getting some tips on batting from Gavin Larsen. You simply do not get opportunities like that playing village cricket in England.
I'm name dropping but for a cricket tragic like me these are things you will never forget. For a genuinely talented player, they'd be invaluable. I think about some of the very talented young players I knew in England who, because they didn't go to a private school and lived in a rural part of the world, would never get those chances.
In Melbourne I am fortunate to be at a strong VTCA club and you can see there's more depth than NZ, but you still get opportunities you would never get in English cricket, training alongside former first class and Vic Premier players.
Even when I moved to Wellington where there’s greater depth, I once got asked to fill in for the Onslow senior team in a preseason game and ended up playing against the Horowhenua-Kapiti provincial side and getting some tips on batting from Gavin Larsen. You simply do not get opportunities like that playing village cricket in England.
I'm name dropping but for a cricket tragic like me these are things you will never forget. For a genuinely talented player, they'd be invaluable. I think about some of the very talented young players I knew in England who, because they didn't go to a private school and lived in a rural part of the world, would never get those chances.
In Melbourne I am fortunate to be at a strong VTCA club and you can see there's more depth than NZ, but you still get opportunities you would never get in English cricket, training alongside former first class and Vic Premier players.
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Great to see the Wonderkid get a 240. He now has the 12th highest score by a Kiwi in only his 4th Test 
Is he also the youngest NZ player to score a double hundred? Cricinfo list stops at 23 years and 360 days and no Kiwi's appear on that list (Ravindra was 24 years 79 days)
Edit: Williamson was 24 years 148 days so not him
Is he also the youngest NZ player to score a double hundred? Cricinfo list stops at 23 years and 360 days and no Kiwi's appear on that list (Ravindra was 24 years 79 days)
Edit: Williamson was 24 years 148 days so not him
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thierry henry
International Coach
Sinclair was a few weeks youngerGreat to see the Wonderkid get a 240. He now has the 12th highest score by a Kiwi in only his 4th Test
Is he also the youngest NZ player to score a double hundred? Cricinfo list stops at 23 years and 360 days and no Kiwi's appear on that list (Ravindra was 24 years 79 days)
Edit: Williamson was 24 years 148 days so not him
Chubb
International Regular
He's certainly ever young in @Prince EWS' eyes.
Binkley
U19 Captain
I moved to a small town 3 years’ ago. One other factor is that things like Community Boards are run by the sports’ clubs. We also have a “Lands Trust” that holds vast swathes of public land “for the benefit of everyone in town”. The Trust board is stacked with members of the rugby club, and recently voted to give the club a 50 year lease on its fields and clubrooms at $0 per year.
Flem274*
123/5
Yeah this happens too.
I'm fortunate ours sees a world outside sports and is doing some very cool conservation stuff, but the boards in the right hands can do great stuff. At their worst, sports suffer too.