By comparison, Latham leads from an office down the hallway. Fair enough. Everyone is different.
As an opener, he’s decent by New Zealand standards, although his average is short of world-class. But is he any good as a captain?
The Cantabrian started as the fulltime captain in a blaze of glory, leading New Zealand to a 3-0 victory in India that has still got the cricket world scratching its head. The result was beyond being an outlier. It was more from out of space. It will always stand as one of the most amazing results ever achieved by a New Zealand sports team abroad.
Latham’s image is so nondescript that he probably missed out on enough of the credit due for that incredible result. Then came the almighty crash at Hagley Park, where the Kiwis produced their worst catching display in living memory in losing to England.
The unexplainable dropsies were hardly Latham’s fault but he appeared incapable of changing the momentum of the game either, as England sauntered to victory.
Latham is still a hard captain to fathom.
WINNER: Glenn Phillips
The Kiwi’s wonder catch at gully to dismiss England’s Ollie Pope is the grab of the year. (In keeping with the first-test trend though, he also dropped a straightforward catch.)
He’s the best fielder we’ve ever had.
WINNER: Chris Wood
Another goal for Nottingham Forest in the English Premier League after Chris Wood slammed a penalty down the middle to win the game against Ipswich.
The EPL goalscoring leaderboard reads E. Haaland (superstar) 12, M. Salah (mega-star) 11, C. Wood (comparatively unheralded) 9. Remarkable.
Wood’s goal conversion rate and shot accuracy are superb. And Wood could play a huge part in the title race on Thursday morning when Forest play repeat champions Manchester City, who are falling apart. City were torn apart by Liverpool at Anfield and already look out of the title race. Another loss would virtually seal their fate.
WINNERS: Auckland FC … so are they breaking through?
Another hard-to-believe-Kiwi football story. The new and still-undefeated A-League team notched up a fifth consecutive victory, this time with late goals against Newcastle in wet conditions at Mt Smart. And they have still yet to concede a goal.
All Whites goalkeeper Alex Paulsen, who Auckland nicked from the Wellington Phoenix in a deal involving English EPL club Bournemouth, has made important saves and there are other outstanding defensive contributors.
Crucially, Auckland coach Steve Corica has got his team playing a game that doesn’t involve too many risks with the ball. And Auckland are proving masters of the important late goals – the excellent deadlock-breaker from Neyder Moreno against Newcastle came in the 84th minute.
A decent-sized crowd of 13,000 watched the latest game. While anticipation will be building, it is unclear if Auckland FC’s magical run is cutting through to the wider sports audience … yet.
LOSER: Free speech … when we get force-fed messages that are entangled with official sports occasions
I’m talking TJ Perenara here.
As the interpretation goes, the veteran halfback inserted a personal political message into his leadership of the haka, before his final All Blacks test against Italy, in Turin.
Here’s my problem with what he did.
How many other political messages would be tolerated in an official All Blacks capacity? How many of Perenara’s teammates would truly have felt able to oppose the message or the method?
I simply refuse to believe that everyone in the All Blacks camp agrees with what he did, even if many agree with his stance.
There’s also a disturbing arrogance to a national sports team taking domestic issues and planting them on the world stage. That the rest of the rugby world allows and maybe even celebrates the pre-match haka should be taken as a privilege by us.
On the subject of Hīkoi mō te Tiriti and the broader implications, I strongly support the Perenara view. I am delighted that he is speaking up. Proud of the guy. But he has plenty of platforms available from which to speak what we know is his own mind. His action in Turin was misguided and it put New Zealand Rugby (NZR) in a tricky situation.
NZR cut the relevant phrase from an uploaded video. I’m not sure if that was the right thing to do or not but those claiming censorship are taking a simplistic view of what free speech is about.
WINNER: Liam Lawson … maybe.
Formula One is a mysterious beast, with all sorts of powerful forces at play.
Who would know if Liam Lawson – who finished 14th in Qatar – is progressing well enough on the track? But he’s making a decent noise with some of his comments, and creating rivalries along the way. New Zealand needs more outspoken sports stars.
WINNER: Vaibhav Suryavanshi
He’s the 13-year-old bought for $220,000 by the Rajasthan Royals to play in the Indian Premier League.
The IPL’s youngest-ever recruit has a top score of 332 at an under-19 tournament and scored a 58-ball century in an unofficial junior test against Australia.
His dad, a farmer who moved to Mumbai, where he is a bouncer, said he will be making sure “this IPL auction doesn’t go to his head – he still has a long way to go”.
