We Should Not Be Surprised at New Zealand's Achievements

That nice-guy trope is getting weird.

The smoke signals were evident in the early matches against South Africa and Australia. The air grew thicker as Afghanistan and West Indies were seen off. By the time India rocked up to play Sri Lanka in their final league-stage game of the 2019 ODI World Cup, they were officially on fire. They won that match too and waltzed into the semi-finals as the table-toppers.

At the end of the Sri Lanka game, BCCI’s video channel caught up with Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma for a two-minute chat. Kohli was his usual self in showering generous praise upon his teammate. Rohit accepted the laurels with his trademark half-smirk-half-smile. As the chat draws to a close, Kohli mentions how Rohit was left out of the triumphant 2011 squad, and that he hopes both can lift the trophy together this time.

Their semi-final was in three days.

I might be reading too much into it, but their tone and gaze told me that they were already looking forward to Lord’s and that famous balcony, the taste of champagne under the London twilight, the reams of golden confetti spread over their soaked jerseys. In their defence, they weren’t the only Indians thinking of London before the car had even turned for the pit-stop at Manchester. India’s recent form, and the strength of resources they were pulling with Rohit, Kohli, Pandya, Dhoni, and Bumrah, would make most fans giddy.

My suspicion is that their semi-final opponents would have helped build that sense of anticipation. A quick peek at the ten previous games India played against New Zealand helps highlight it further.

We know how that semi-final went.

It was a shocking loss. Given their strength and balance, anything less than a medal felt like massive underachievement. But once the dust settled, the narrative took an expected turn. The loss apparently hurt a little less because it came against the Kiwis. The nice guys; the younger siblings of the cricket family. Words like grace and humility were thrown around casually. After a heart-stopper of a World Cup final, England captain Eoin Morgan repeated the same lines, but with a more triumphant timbre. 

This summer, India and New Zealand played each other in a knockout match again, this time directly for the world title. The script, once again, went against plans and expectations. The post-match narrative was familiar. New Zealand were talked up because the nice guys had finally finished first. This wasn’t their first world title, but we kind of, you know, forgot about the time when they thrashed India at the ICC Champions Trophy final in 2000.

This month, New Zealand beat India and England at the World T20, and were made to hear the same tunes all over again. How did they do this? 

Lest you think this is some fan sentiment that hasn’t seeped through to the experts, it is quite the opposite. Ex-cricketers and commentators, who watch the game more closely than a fan ever could, are still surprised by New Zealand’s achievements despite their meagre population and resources.

Kevin Pietersen🦏 @KP24

What is it about NZ? Population 5M! They’ve got the All Blacks and a cricket team that’s getting to major finals regularly. What is it? Might be a model for global sport to follow…

What a lovely team, we exclaimed, always punching above their weight.

***

About 3000 years back, the Philistines clashed with the King’s army of Israel in the Valley of Etah. As both clans waited at opposite ends of the ridge, unable to move for the fear of getting exposed, they devised a solution that could find a victor without the bloodshed of a major war. Both sides decided to send their mightiest warrior to a central point of the valley. Whoever wins that fight gets to march forward with their armies.

The Philistines send their guy. He is a 6 foot 9 behemoth, decked in all kinds of armoury and war gear. Upon seeing him, the Israelites begin wondering about their life insurance policies. No one comes forward. One boy, a shepherd, walks up to the King and says “I’ll take him.” This boy does not have weapons or protective gear. He packs a few stones into his bag and walks towards the giant Philistine. As the boy reaches close, he flings a stone, hits the giant between the eyes, felling him, then walks over to his body, and cuts his head off.

This tale is popularly known as David vs Goliath. I found its background in a TED Talk by Malcolm Gladwell. David’s feat is canonised as the triumph of the underdog. He won despite standing no chance against Goliath. Why? Because David only had a few stones.

Gladwell’s talk guides us to the last five words. Only had a few stones. For thousands of years, we have misread David and Goliath, and measured strength only by size.

David, if ancient texts are to be believed, was a slinger. Slingers could hurl rocks with incredible speed and accuracy. David had honed this skill all his life and knew how to use it in combat. This ability made those stones as potent a weapon as anything Goliath had. Gladwell is crazy, so he went into the ballistics of a rock flung by a slinger, but basically, it could kill.

Speed wasn’t Goliath’s friend. He was big and heavy, a giant who could maim you with strength. But it took him a while to get around or see properly. And there is a case to be made, with evidence, that those who know how to use their resources are always well equipped to withstand challenging circumstances.

***

The ongoing World T20 is being held across Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai. Auckland and Abu Dhabi are, quite literally, half a pole apart. While a handful of members from the New Zealand squad were already present through the IPL, the rest reached UAE a few weeks before their opening match. 

Chris Donaldson, their Strength & Conditioning coach and ex-Olympic sprinter, took them through a strenuous regime. Their training sessions were organised at 2pm, under the 38-degree desert heat. It was “shock therapy” to acclimatise with the extreme conditions they would face in this tournament. Over the last couple of weeks, every New Zealand player has averaged around 10 litres of water every day.

This isn’t the level of preparation for plucky underdogs, but a top team looking to maximise on the margins. Kane Williamson, Trent Boult, and Martin Guptill have fat enough careers to ease back on and play out this tournament like other teams. Bubble life has been tough on everyone. But tell that to a team that knows what it means to have ten extra minutes of energy in conditions that test your physical endurance. Just competing has never been good enough for New Zealand.

They want to win as desperately as any other team. We don’t recognise their technical competence enough because we don’t get to see them often. In a way, we are all myopic.

Part of this myopia — the entire ecosystem of players, fans, and expert observers — comes from the imbalance of power structure in the game. The influential boards are a self-serving world unto themselves, and the less affluent get scraps for fixtures or revenue-share. This influence is a direct function of playing-population and infrastructure. Over the last few decades, as the game has morphed into an industry, it has all become a vicious circle that only a select few can dodge.

For perspective, in the last 10 years, India, England, and Australia have played 81 Tests just against each other. In that time, New Zealand have played a total of 87 Tests, only 33 of which are against those big three. In short, you get to watch New Zealand for roughly one big series every year, and even then, there is always a higher-profile series happening somewhere else. As a result, their achievements are distant and blurred.

Since 2011, six teams have played more Test matches than New Zealand, but only three can boast of a better win-loss ratio. It should not be a surprise when they do well. They are elite by design. And you would expect seasoned observers and ex-cricketers to know that.

Here’s the deal. In twelve editions of the ODI World Cup, New Zealand have finished in the top-four eight times. In seven editions of the T20 World Cup, they have done this thrice. They won the only World Test Championship to date, and were bronze medalists at the only time cricket was played at the Commonwealth Games.

Grace is a lovely thing to be remembered for, and the Kiwis should be proud of that, but it is weird — patronising, even? — that, after all this time, their performances still evoke surprise.

Regardless of how tonight’s final pans out, New Zealand will be a force at the next world championship. And the one after that. This is what they do. They don’t punch above their weight. On the truly important metrics, they are traditional heavyweights.