Winning big won’t bring joy
OPINION: We spent the first half of the international rugby season bemoaning the lack of any halfdecent opposition for the All Blacks.
We spent the second spell complaining how Steve Hansen had run out of ideas and ‘‘we’’ were being humbled by northern hemisphere noddies.
That likely says more about Kiwis as sports ‘‘fans’’ than it does about the variance of competition in sport and the flattened playing field of international rugby.
But be prepared for the same reaction to the Black Caps following the second cricket test starting against the West Indies in Hamilton on Saturday.
Kiwi sports fans chiefly see things in all black and white – shades of grey are merely things from a badly-written fantasy novel.
As always, the answer slips somewhere in between the two stools.
New Zealand has developed into a formidable test side on home soil.
Since the start of 2011, the Black Caps have played 28 home tests and won 13, drawn 10 and lost just five.
The loss column gives the best indication where NZ stands in the test arena.
The defeats have been against Australia twice, South Africa twice, and against Pakistan at Seddon Park at the start of that period.
Against the top echelon of test nations, the Black Caps fall short of the levels set by the standardbearers.
But the Windies, Sri Lanka, Pakistan (when not at their mercurial best), Bangladesh and Zimbabwe have all been soundly taken to task.
The Windies showed a fatal fragility in Wellington that may require more that just a couple of training sessions in the Tron to piece together and find a spine sturdy enough to save the series.
It seems whatever happens in the second test, the reaction will be predictable – a healthy home win is expected and won’t be greeted with any great joy by most followers, anything else and profound doubts will be expressed over talent, depth and heart.
For those desperately seeking a definitive measure of NZ’s test abilities, bad news – no chance you’ll get it this summer.
Once the Windies depart next week, there’s only two more fiveday tests to follow – against an England side post-Ashes at the end of March (with one of those under lights with a pink ball at Eden Park).