Well, the Stuff.co.nz web site anyway (Hamish McDouall’s cricket blog to be precise):
Here is my friend Dan, seething with volcanic energy, about the Napier test:
“I’m still furious about Sunday afternoon’s collapse, not because it was so unnecessary (and not because I’d just texted a friend saying literally “we won’t bat again in this game”) but because the day before a 19-year-old had bowled his heart out, and us in to a winning position, and the senior players - the guys he should be looking up to and learning from - showed him that he needn’t have bothered. They demonstrated once again that mediocrity and a “near enough is good enough” attitude will get you in this team and keep you there and that no amount of drive, commitment, talent and spunk will prompt your teammates to raise their game.
“Imagine if Southee had joined the Australian team - everyone around him would be driving him to get better and achieve more. For the Black Caps he’s already good enough to be picked for as long as he wants.
“Where’s the motivation going to come from? If McCullum’s out on Sunday is anything to go by it won’t be from the vice-captain. But then I’ve never forgiven him for this: McCullum c Silva b Muralitharan 0(1)”
Now that’s writing that bristles with so much fission it could power Donetsk or other industrial East European conurbations.
Cheers, Hamish.
