It’s been a spectacular Test and an odd one. Spectacular because records have been broken and runs have come at an astonishing rate; odd because there has been an outbreak of smiles on the pitch. This is supposed to be the cut and thrust of international cricket, both teams are competing earnestly with the series in the balance and yet, as far as we can perceive, there has been a conspicuous absence of sledging; no stump mics have picked up promises of broken arms.
Most of the smiles have been on Kiwi faces, for that is the way they play their cricket. On Saturday there was a moment when the perfect off-break from Mark Craig beat Ian Bell and missed the off-stump by a whisker. New Zealand were desperate for a wicket as the series seemed to be slipping away. The camera swung to Brendon McCullum’s face at silly point, he was wearing the broadest of c’est la vie smiles. A little later Trent Boult beat the bat with two successive deliveries, perfect balls that deserved reward. Again the camera zoomed in, this time it was Boult in shot beaming almost angelically.
In these circumstances, pacemen are supposed to growl and grump and vigorously vent their feelings at the fortunate batsman.
All this is not accidental. A Rubicon was crossed by New Zealand in Cape Town after McCullum’s first match in charge.
His team were bowled out for 45 by South Africa and the match was lost. This reverse would have as profound an effect on New Zealand as when England were bowled out for 51 in Jamaica in February 2009. It was time for a bit of soul-searching and a time for change.
After much thought in his hotel room in Cape Town, McCullum and his coach, Mike Hesson, called the team together and between them all they laid down the principles for the new regime: they would have fun when playing cricket; they would not sledge; they would never give up and always make it tough for the opposition; and they would undertake to remain calm amid the highs and lows of international cricket.
These are all laudable goals, idealistic by modern standards; the amazing thing is that since January 2013 they have stuck to them. They are still smiling and not sledging. And they are still battling at Headingley to square the series – with considerable success. Witness Tim Southee take three quick wickets on Sunday morning. Of course, the bowler and his team-mates were delighted but their celebrations were measured and restrained by modern standards. They stayed calm.
All of this can be disconcerting to opponents. At the recent World Cup when Australia travelled to Auckland to be beaten in a minor epic by one wicket by New Zealand, Brad Haddin returned home confused and a tad angry. “They [the Kiwis] were too nice,” he said, “and we were uncomfortable with that. I said at a team meeting: ‘I can’t stand this any more; I’m not going to play my cricket like that’.” Haddin was determined that he would give them both barrels if he had the opportunity in the rest of the competition. He was true to his word come the World Cup final, as Grant Elliott might be able to confirm.
All of this would be of little note if New Zealand were a peripheral force in world cricket. But patently that is not the case. Like the best Kiwi teams of the past, this one maximizes its resources. Back in the Seventies and Eighties there was a wonderful cragginess among some of the batsmen (with a few glowing exceptions such as Martin Crowe) and there was always Richard Hadlee to bowl the opposition out.
But this team of McCullum’s is committed to playing a different brand of cricket, which is daring – and therefore risky – and fun. They are enjoying themselves. Sometimes the gung-ho spirit seems to take over. Don’t they realise how much flak they might receive from their travelling press corps if it becomes a tad too irresponsible? Actually that won’t happen. Their press corps could be fitted into the back of a very small car.
McCullum encourages his side to play with freedom – in his own manner – and they do so now with relish. In fact, McCullum surprised us all again on Sunday. His team played with terrific aggression, which soon disorientated the England bowlers, with BJ Watling, one of a quartet of wicketkeepers in the team, to the fore. But McCullum himself was unpredictably pragmatic. We awaited the explosions, yet after a few swishes he was measured and watchful, hitting just a solitary six and three fours. Along the way he notched his 6,000th Test run, at about the same time that it was announced he had been made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit alongside Hesson.
McCullum ended with 55 from 98 balls, turgid fare by the standards of this contest. Oh my Franklin and Edgar of years gone by. Yet it was an appropriate innings, while the rest were making hay in the sun. McCullum likes his team to have fun. He likes to win as well.
