Dominic George: Put your head down and get job done

Ross Taylor showed determination against Bangladesh.

I strode on to the stage as Ross Taylor strode out to bat. He was about to face the crafty Bangladeshi attack with New Zealand 33 for 2 in the fifth over of their final Cricket World Cup match pool match, while I was partaking in a panel discussion for Rabobank's annual shindig at the Wanaka A&P Show.

That's where the similarities with Ross and I end, but stay with me. A high calibre agricultural panel was assembled to discuss the topic "getting young people into agriculture", featuring Neil Gardyne, Will and Kim Grayling, Hamish and Amy Bielski and Matt and Julie Ross. Speaking of Ross, he really hadn't been in the best of form heading into this match. A total of 29 runs from five matches at an average of nine. Still, early days ...

Meanwhile, the debate in Wanaka was lively as the panellists warmed to the task and the 200-plus audience joined in with a few probing questions of their own. All these farming couples had genuine skin in the game and had fashioned impressive careers and businesses up to this point.

I was intrigued by something Neil Gardyne told me beforehand that we revisited during the debate. We were discussing the progress of the Black Caps chasing down the 287 they had been set by Bangladesh earlier that afternoon. He casually remarked that the Rabobank event in Wanaka has had somewhat of a chequered history of coinciding with disasters; we both silently hoped it wasn't to be the national cricket team failing to reach their target on this occasion. Taylor was still there though with Martin Guptill who had seemed to have found some form.

Neil said the previous year the Rabobank attendees were all keeping up to date with the news that Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 had gone down in mysterious circumstances and, a couple of years before that, they were learning that Japan was in the midst of a devastating earthquake/tsunami/nuclear meltdown triple whammy. Bad omens indeed.

Still, that didn't deter the panellists from discussing the nuts and bolts of their own farming operations and the lessons they'd learned along the way. Issues to arise from the broader topic centred on bridging the city/country divide, debunking the perception of agriculture as a difficult industry to break into, giving it more prominence in the school curriculum and succession planning.

All good stuff with plenty of fresh ideas and, what's more, a conclusion, or consensus, was reached as Taylor and Guptill brought up a century stand for the third wicket. All these farming families had fought their way into the industry. No one was handed a farm or a patch of land and told to go for it. They all decided they wanted to farm of their own volition; they grafted, made mistakes, learned from those mistakes and incrementally started to achieve what they set out to. They'll all tell you there's still a long way to go as well, but they love it and wouldn't change a thing.

In essence, what they've done is simply discover for themselves the age-old dictum of success arising from patience and persistence. There's no magic bullet, no panacea, just a lot of hard yakka. As if the point needed further reinforcement, Taylor brought up his half-century in a workmanlike fashion; in fact he was roundly criticised at the time for taking up too many balls to reach his half-century, thereby putting the incoming batsmen under more pressure to chase down the runs. He eventually wound up with 56 off 97 balls.

The panel dispersed and the crowd mingled. A casual glance at the phone for updates kept people informed of the state of play. But, as time went on and the socialising moved up a few gears, a nervous tension infected the venue. Word spread that New Zealand was losing wickets and the runs-to-balls ratio was at worrying levels. As it reached the unbearable level, a group of us decided to put on the live commentary via the Radio Sport app and let Wads and Jerry bring us home. They duly obliged and the Black Caps made it six from six at the Cricket World Cup. As we prophesised the team's tournament fortunes, praised Guptill's ton and lauded Southee's boundary hitting, I managed to spare a small thought for Taylor; much maligned, talented, struggling. But when the time came for some good, honest toil, he put his head down and got the job done. Now, where have I heard that before?