Losers take all – Cool Kiwis win our hearts

Rarely has a losing side received so much praise from all around the world, seldom has a side which comes second gets a hero’s welcome back home, not a single word of criticism or troll in social media despite losing in the finals on a bizarre technical rule. The New Zealand cricket team won the hearts of everyone irrespective of whether one is a sports lover or not.

The secret mantra of success of the New Zealand team was “Team First”, epitomized by their captain Kane Williamson, whose coach in school Pacey Depina described him as having “thirst to be phenomenal—but not at anyone else’s expense.” He reportedly scored 40 centuries while still in school. In 2014 one-day series against Pakistan, Kane donated his entire earnings to the victims of the Peshawar school massacre.

How does this Team First philosophy permeate so deeply into every team member or official, for a national team whose annual revenue is less than Surrey County Cricket Club. They get by with a paltry budget of ￡26 million a year, one-seventh of England’s and ￡5 million less than Surrey alone.

One of the first things that the New Zealand cricket authorities did was to focus on governance based purely on merit. In 1995, a new governance structure was created replacing the provincial directors (something like India’s zonal or state representation) with independent appointments on merit. They had learnt from cricket boards of other countries where political or regional pressures compromised selection to the national team.

The next thing they did was to create their national fixtures in a way so that it didn’t clash with IPL in which Kane and other Kiwi players take part earning well enough. Unlike South Africa which lost a lot of money in trying to copy the IPL model at home, New Zealand staying away from such misadventures and invested in grass-root cricket development.

The outcome showed. From a bottom of heap ranking in 1995, New Zealand has been the most impressive international cricket team in the world since 1999. They are unique in reaching the last four of the previous four World Cups, even while maintaining a strong Test side.

More than the winners England, the Black Caps emerged as the true victors and once again cricket became a gentleman’s game.