Williamson: I’m not driven by setting personal goals

Black Caps captain Kane Williamson continues to cement himself as one of cricket’s greats but insists he’s not driven by achieving personal goals and prefers to embrace a team-first mentality.

Ahead of the start of the Black Caps first home test of the summer against Sri Lanka in Wellington tomorrow, Williamson gave some insight into what motivates him after climbing into second spot on the ICC test batting rankings earlier this week.

Following his 19th test century in the third test win over Pakistan last week, Williamson now has multiple centuries against every test nation except Zimbabwe.

The 28-year-old has now leapfrogged suspended Australian skipper Steve Smith to sit one place behind India’s Virat Kohli as the world’s best batsmen.

Despite his growing status, Williamson downplayed his personal record and said he was not driven to reach any particular number of centuries before pulling stumps on his career.

Rather than looking to add to his long list of personal milestones, Williamson stressed he was motivated more by wanting to perform well for the team in each match and help the Black Caps’ all-round performance.

“For me, it is just about trying to do your role and your bit for the team as best you can, and that’s pretty much it, and enjoying doing that as well as you can,” Williamson told Radio Sport yesterday.

“Look, it was nice to form a good partnership with Henry [Nicholls] there in Abu Dhabi, which proved to be an important one, and that’s where you get most of your satisfaction, certainly not from setting lofty goals like [individual milestones].”

While many sportsmen or athletes like to set goals and record them in a notebook or diary to refer back to, Williamson says he has a broader team focus.

Being determined to score plenty of runs was obviously a positive trait, but Williamson believes players should be more worried about how they can best influence their teammates and help them achieve team goals.

“No, I don’t [have a book of goals]. I don’t really believe in that,” he said.

“Especially in a team sport, where if you’re too focused on personal endeavours it can get in the road of what you’re trying to achieve as a team,”

he said.

“Don’t get me wrong, if you are contributing well then that’s a positive thing for the team, but how you do it and your attitude towards it, I think, is probably more important.

“It’s an interesting one, where there’s that individual element in cricket which often comes under the microscope, but at the same time I think it’s much more about just contributing in your role to the team as best you can.”

For me it is just about trying to do your role and your bit for the team as best you can, and that’s pretty much it, and enjoying doing that as well as you can

Kane Williamson