MUMBAI: “You want us to retire?” said Kane Williamson in jest. The Black Caps captain was responding to a query about whether the senior players in his side had played in their last World Cup together, after New Zealand were eliminated from the 2023 World Cup with a 70-run defeat to India in the first semifinal at the Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday.
Considering that they are all in their 30s, this could be the last hurrah for New Zealand’s ‘golden generation’ of players, which, besides Williamson, include seamers Trent Boult and Tim Southee, and wicketkeeper-batter Tom Latham.
Even as this highly talented bunch reached the finals of the 2015 & 2019 ODI World Cups and the final of the T20 World Cup in 2021, what will rankle them is that they are yet to win a World Cup together in either white-ball formats.
Come the 2027 World Cup in Africa, Williamson will be 37, while Boult, Southee and Latham will all be 38. In the semis, Williamson scored 69, Latham was out for a duck, while Southee and Boult — stalwarts of the Black Caps’ pace department since the past decade, were hammered for 186 for four in 20 overs.
At some stage, a rebuilding might be enforced, but Williamson insisted that “it’s not over just yet” for this group of New Zealand cricketers.
“It’s an ongoing effort as a side to keep trying to get better and push the boundaries of where we can get to as a team. “You can only hope that, as we experienced from some of our leaders as young guys, that we can continue to bring players through — not just in the quality that (the senior players) bring, because we’ve seen that in spades throughout the last seven weeks, but also in how they’re approaching their cricket in order to try and move this team forwards,” Williamson said.
“I think we’ve seen that too — so some good signs, certainly, in this last period of time. It’s not over just yet, but that’s where the focus is. You come to these tournaments and they can be small margins (which determine) whether you get further or not, but ultimately, it’s about growing as a group and becoming a better cricket team.
"I think the seven weeks were really valuable for us as a side: We wanted to go further, naturally, but we’ll reflect on it and take a lot of good out of it,” he added.
