Never spurn the chance to rewrite the history books - Editorial

Rachin Ravindra and Henry Nicholls added more than 250 runs together on day two. Photo / Zimbabwe Cricket

Editorial

Professional sportspeople train their entire lives in the hope they will one day rewrite the history books for their country.

So why is it that, when the chance to do it finally comes along, cricketers are choosing to spurn the opportunity?

The Black Caps’ unbeaten tour of Zimbabwe won’t live long in the memory of anyone, but it could have.

All it would have taken was for our national team to have been a bit more ruthless.

In the second test, with the series secured and New Zealand’s batters plundering their opposition, ending the second day on 600-3, a chance of a record score loomed.

The Black Caps had bowled Zimbabwe out for pittance, and had a further three days left to do as they pleased.

New national coach Rob Walter and stand-in skipper Mitchell Santner would have discussed the possibility of going for Sri Lanka’s test match record mark of 952-6, and even the possibility of trying to pass the magical 1000-run mark.

That was close to another day of batting away, but with Rachin Ravindra and Henry Nicholls both on 150+ not out, and even nightwatchman Jacob Duffy looking comfortable against Zimbabwe’s tiring attack, it was hardly out of the realms of possibility.

If they had reached it and then Zimbabwe had batted out the next two days for a draw, or unlikely rain had arrived, few would have minded.

The Black Caps would have still won the series, and World Test Championship points weren’t up for grabs so wouldn’t have been lost.

Instead, the decision to declare and promptly bowl Zimbabwe out on the third day appears to have been driven three factors:

- To end the test early

- To put Zimbabwe out of their misery

- To not break a holy-grail record against a struggling team

None of these are acceptable reasons.

The modern cricketing calendar is packed, but these players now have at least three months before they’ll play test cricket again.

And unlike the children that a Hawke’s Bay cricketer copped flak for hitting a triple century against, Zimbabwe is a professional team.

Their players are being paid a match fee, and workers at the match had arranged to be there for five days. The Black Caps could have kept them in the field in good conscience.

The ‘not-worthy-enough-to-break-the-record’ argument is a fascinating one. Wiaan Mulder also used it recently against Zimbabwe when declaring in sight of breaking Brian Lara’s 400 mark as the highest test score by an individual.

It doesn’t make logical sense, except to cricketers who don’t want the disparities of the modern game laid bare.

In 1955, New Zealand was in a similar state to the Zimbabwe cricket team of 2025.

The team was bowled out for 26, a now 70-year-old record that haunts the nation every time a poor team comes close to breaking it.

Wouldn’t it have been nice to hold a record at the right end of the test batting scale? Unfortunately, we’ll never know.