A Letter to Daniel Vettori

Dear Mr.Vettori,

I’m probably the only Indian who felt more than a twinge of sadness that New Zealand received such a thrashing and was blanked out in the ODI series by India. As someone who has been a New Zealand fan for more than five years, the steady sloppiness of the team is disheartening.

But why would an Indian be a fan of New Zealand? Indeed it seems more acceptable for an Indian fan to support England or Australia or Sri Lanka, than New Zealand. After all, NZ hasn’t won a single world cup or major tournament. They don’t have a legend like Lara to boast of. They’re not big scorers. Nor are they amazing wicket-takers.

The question remains: Why this fascination for the New Zealand team? My answer would be that the fascination stems from an entirely old-fashioned, romantic idea of the game. This is an idea of a team that plays the ‘gentlemen’s game’ in the real sense of the phrase. This is an affinity towards the chivalrous underdog; the proverbial David who takes on Goliath.

Yours is a team that has won the ICC Spirit of Cricket award twice in a row. The cynics often say  that the spirit of cricket is all well and good, but cricket is about winning. This is a concept that a team that lost to Bangladesh 0-4 would find tough to understand, they point out. To them I say, I’d rather watch Vettori’s boys lose yet be sportsmen than watch Harbhajan slap Sreesanth.

It is wonderful to see a team that is exactly that: a team. A unit that is not always dependent on the big names to fire. Of course there is a Vettori and McCullum and there was a Bond, a Hadlee and a Cairns. But the players are never bigger than the team. Even at their best, when they’ve been touted as the ‘Dark Horses’ of any tournament, it was the team that was feared, not just a Bond or Vettori. This emphasis on team over self is one of the reasons it is lovely to see the NZ team field. Indeed your team has often made fielding seem like a synchronized, athletic art form.

Part of the charm of cricket, in my opinion, is the fact that for every instance of sledging, there is a cricketer who ‘walks’. For every Harbhajan and Symonds, there is a Rahul Dravid and a Daniel Vettori. And that’s exactly the reason I’m a New Zealand fan. Your team might not, in fact won’t, win every match it plays. Many a time I’ve turned on the TV to watch a game, knowing well the Black Caps won’t have an easy match. But it is so heartening to see your team put up a fight. It is the same reasoning that made Slumdog Millionaire a phenomenal success: there is nothing quite like rooting for an underdog and rejoicing when they triumph. 

It is time the NZ team stepped up and proved the 'nice guys finish last' cliche wrong. There is a lot of work to be done, but there is nothing impossible. You are an excellent cricketer whom I admire very much and I hope you shall review the awful performances over the past few months, without giving up. Nobody expects much from New Zealand now. Which is probably why this is the best time to do an overhaul if needed and get things right.

I shall be watching this team, as I always have, with expectations and hope that you will perform to your true potential.

Always a fan,

Kals

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