The Black Caps were always going to cop it after their defeats in this test series, but Jonathan Millmow has sent down a beamer that catches Vettori right in the faceguard.
Our biggest problem in this tour was our lack of depth. We can't fault the lesser lights for doing no better than we expected, the likes of How, Flynn and O'Brien. We were always going to need decent performances from our stars, Vettori, Oram, McCullum, Taylor and Mills. While they did perform passably well in England, they each played worse in some way than they did in the home series – or in other words, before their IPL sabbatical.
We can only speculate as to what effect missing the start of the tour to play twenty20 might have had on these players, but it is hard to imagine that it was anything other than detrimental to their test form, particularly to Vettori's captaincy.
It certainly looks bad for New Zealand to lose like we did in the last two tests. I myself would find the loss easier to swallow if there wasn't this doubt over our preparedness. With the heat being turned on Vettori, I wonder if he would still claim that he's not worried about how it looks.
Tuesday, 10 June 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
There should be a ban on all former players commenting on the effect of the IPL, as that Green Eyed Monster is never far away.
The thing that cracks me up is that the bitterest of the ex-players, like Millmow, would never have got within a million miles of it anyway.
I got cornered in a Wgtn bar with a former NZ rep from the 80s a few weeks ago (while our boys were at the IPL actually), and was astounded by the angry jealousy shown towards the current side; none of them would’ve made the team from the 80s etc…
And the persistent snide remarks about money were intertwined with every comment.
Post a Comment