Build-up boring; bring on the game

It was a big week for New Zealand women’s cricket as a new deal was announced that will ensure...
It was a big week for New Zealand women’s cricket as a new deal was announced that will ensure our top female players get paid the same match fees as the men. PHOTO: ODT FILES

Night of the year

Whisper it quietly but rugby test week is actually a little bit anti-climactic for a local sports reporter.

It’s all rather sterile and staged, and long years have passed since your man felt much excitement at sitting (well, standing, and holding a recording device) through yet another press conference.

But an actual test? Between the All Blacks and Ireland? At the Glasshouse?

Oh me oh my oh yes boy. Sign me up for that.

Tonight could be a bobby-dazzler, a rip-snorter, a classic. And I might even throw in a "to be sure" for our visiting Irish friends.

It is important we do not get too insular, that we do not just obsess over the All Blacks and forget we have a fabulous touring team on show tonight, not to mention its wonderful fans.

Some were not impressed I all-but crossed my fingers last week for an Irish victory in the first test, arguing — with some validity, I thought — it would be sensational for the atmosphere at the second test if the All Blacks were wounded, motivated and maybe just a little scared.

Well, they certainly aren’t wounded and scared, but let’s hope they have plenty of motivation to give the people of Otago a whopping performance tonight.

All Blacks by 12 ... but imagine how great it would be if Ireland forces a deciding test!

The northern raiders

Even semi-regular readers of The Last Word will be aware of the column’s passionate distaste for The Team That Shall Not Be Named north of the Waitaki River.

So, they are probably expecting this corner of the ODT office to have produced plenty of wailing and gnashing of teeth this week following news the Evil Empire had whisked away promising Otago loose forward Christian Lio-Willie.

Shrug.

He’s a talent, for sure. But his body of work at the top level is extremely brief, there is absolutely no certainty he will develop into a rock star, and the Highlanders have one of the best loose trios in Super Rugby in Shannon Frizell, Billy Harmon and Marino Mikaele-Tu’u.

I hope Lio-Willie does well (though, ideally, his new team will lose every game). Hopefully, he will continue to play for Otago.

In the meantime, I hope the Highlanders are doing everything they can to ensure these youngsters in the New Zealand colts — the golden generation — have a big role to play in the future.

A cricket revolution, I

“The Yorkshireman inside of me is still there saying dig in and play straight. It’s just now there’s the captain on my other shoulder saying, ‘Be a rock star’, so it feels like it’s a fight between the two of them sometimes.”

And there you have it. "Baz-ball" summed up neatly by English batting god Joe Root.

This is getting crazy now. In four straight tests, the Poms have chased down 250-plus in the fourth innings to win a test.

Their latest wild ride, a seven-wicket win over India with Root and Jonny Bairstow, the best player in the world right now, cracking unbeaten centuries to chase down 378, confirms Dunedin’s own Brendon McCullum has more than just magic dust as a coach.

McCullum and captain Ben Stokes are, to paraphrase somebody on Twitter (can’t remember, sorry) reinventing the game of cricket before our very eyes.

And it is utterly thrilling.

A cricket revolution, II

No, it’s not "pay parity", as the only thing that is equal is match payments.

It was still a massive week for New Zealand women’s cricket as details were announced of the new deal that will ensure our top female players get paid the same as the men (sort of).

That is great news for the very small group of elite female players in this country, and I don’t begrudge them getting a decent pay packet.

But one note of caution, similar to the one I sounded about elite women’s rugby.

You can’t build a sport from the top down.

I hope New Zealand Cricket’s next move is to secure funding to swamp the cities and regions with coaching and development resources to give women’s cricket an almighty push at the grassroots.

Angel or devil?

Nick Kyrgios is awesome. The Australian tennis genius is fun to watch, a breath of fresh air in a stale sport, and a man who embodies the sort of passion and heart that keeps us all invested in these trivial physical pastimes.

That’s one opinion.

The other is that Kyrgios is a menace, a clown, a foul-mouthed embarrassment.

He has no class, he is wasting a lot of his talent, and now he faces an assault charge related to a domestic incident.

Honestly, he might be the most polarising athlete in the world right now.

Football farce

The Sierra Leone Football Association has launched an investigation into two first division matches, Reuters reports.

What was the problem?

Well, er, one finished 91-1 and the other ended 95-0, which the SLFA charmingly described as "impractical results".

Officials in the West African country said the association had zero tolerance for match manipulation and would be investigating thoroughly.

Oh, and what is the world record score in a recognised top-level football match, you ask?

That would be the 149-0 victory for AS Adema over Stade Olympique de L’Emyrne in the Madagascar league in 2002.

A coach and four players from the losing team copped long bans after the players protested at alleged biased refereeing by scoring 149 own goals.

hayden.meikle@odt.co.nz