‘2019 final defeat left Kane Williamson gutted; this loss to India was easier to understand, cricketing wise’ | Cricket-world-cup News

I remember Kane coming back home from that heart-breaking World Cup final in 2019. He was utterly gutted. I wouldn’t say he was pretty hollow, but was numb for a long time. It wasn’t because he was angry at the loss – it was just difficult to process that strange game. New Zealand didn’t lose the game; yet they lost the World Cup. The overthrows from Ben Stokes’ bat, the boundary count playing a role – it was difficult for him, for us, to process it. I remember it took him a while to get back to himself; I was careful not to talk about it too much but I know he spent a lot of time dwelling about it. He is not the sort to show emotions that way, but I knew deep down that was a hard one to take.
I have known him from when he was 10. More than him, his father, who was the one who coached him early on, was in greater disbelief. The whole team, I would say, struggled a while to handle that game. They had done everything, yet it had slipped away. I believe that memory was what made him make this remarkable comeback for this World Cup.
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In some ways, I would say this is his greatest achievement – how soon he came back from that nasty injury at the IPL. Normally, it takes at least 9 months. He played for New Zealand in 6 months. I saw his daily grind, and was wowed at his commitment. He would do the rehab exercise at the gym, set a gym at his home in that period, and I am sure he drove his wife Sarah mad.
Every moment he got, he would be there, strengthening his legs and lower body. When he could walk, he came over to the nets and started batting against a tennis ball without moving his legs. As he couldn’t, in the batting sense. Even later when he was ready, he didn’t want to take any chances. He checked in a clinic in England that specialises in ACL injuries, and spent 10 days so that he could be at his very best for the World Cup. The entire effort, the passion, the hard work staggered me. I knew that the 2019 World Cup memory drove him to have one more crack at it, this time in India.
I am not surprised at the grace he showed in the media interaction after the semi-final loss to India on Wednesday night. This loss was easier to understand, cricketing wise. This Indian team was too good, and it was a loss on the field. That he can handle. The Lord’s one was crazy for all of us.
India is a place that he has always liked. I remember his first Test tour as a New Zealand player to India. Growing up, his favourites were Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, and he would say later that he just watched them intently all through that tour. I remember a net session when he came back home, and he played a couple of un-Kane like shots. I said, ‘what’s that?’ And he would say with a shy smile, ‘I saw Sachin try this’. Or ‘I saw Dravid try this’.
I have been occasionally asked whether there is another side to him. Something darker! And I have always had to disappoint people. He has always been like this. Respectful, humble, lovely sense of humour, and at ease with 90-year olds or one-year old. The perfect son, in many ways.
I remember the moment when I understood his personality. He was 12-years-old. He had scored three 100s in a row and his dad, who was the coach, swapped the batting order for the next game, sending his son down at No. 6. Kane hit a century to take the team out of trouble, batting with the no.10 in a match-turning partnership. When they walked off the field, all the boys came out and clapped in admiration.“He saw that, stopped, let the other kid walk first and clapped him off the field. When I saw that, right then, I understood his character. The sensitivity in a 12-year old to realise the other young boy might feel left out, the need to put his team ahead – that was a defining moment for me. He isn’t just a good batsman but a good person.
He still keeps working hard at his batting. Knowing hard work makes you luckier. When he made it into the New Zealand team as a 19-year old, I know his lengthy net session would make his team-mates go ‘Oh! Kane is off to the nets again!’. His work ethic, I believe, changed the work ethic of the national team. The others got inspired him, realised the hard work needed as a professional, and the team became a better unit. And he was a teenager.
The time he first played Daniel Vettori, who was an international player then, also sticks in my mind. Kane was 15 then. I was the selector in that game and a bit worried whether I had played him too early. What if a failure scarred him? The first ball he played off Dan, he whipped off the legs and it hit the short-leg on the shoulder. Second ball, he fell lbw for a duck, trying that whip again. As he walked in, I checked on him to see if he was alright, and he goes, ‘That was good fun playing an international player. I played the right shot but needed to play it better’ – He wasn’t crestfallen, he had already done his analysis, summed it up, I just nodded and went back to sit.
The thing with him is that he isn’t scared of failure. He is not worried or won’t let himself be defined success or failure. If he misses a ball, it’s gone. He stays in the moment. Success doesn’t change him. That ability to stay in the moment is what makes him special. Good technically, very, very good mentally.
I remember one episode during his early years that left him down and sad. A newspaper article had picked up from some blogger, claiming to be Williamson, talking himself up and how great he would be in the future. Without checking, the article was carried. Kane was pretty down it. It was ridiculous and he said they made him ‘look like a gangster’; it embarrassed him. It left him a touch guarded for a while.
He can be a private person when he wants to be. But he has this amazing thirst of knowledge that he constantly seeks out – not just about batting or the tactical side of the game but about life. On tours, he would always travel out. He is not a hotel-room resident. In the West Indies, he was hunting down details about Bob Marley. In India, as we saw even in this World Cup, he was out meeting the Dalai Lama. I saw that photo and said, “I wonder who is more calm and cool: the Dalai Lama or our Kane!”Most Read
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He relaxes with music. He has taught himself to play the guitar and he and Trent Boult have a lot of discussions about music. Boult believes he is the better guitar! Kane loves the 70’s, 80’s music but also lens to modern-music as well. ‘Easy-lening’ genres, I would say. His wife Sarah is from Glastonbury region in England and Kane is a regular visitor to that Glastonbury music festival. The couple have two loving children, and he dotes on them. He loves animals, has a golden Labrador that he is very fond of.
All his life, he has only competed with himself. If he becomes a better player than he was last season, he will be happy. He never talks himself up or knocks others down. That’s not his style. But I remember before he made his debut, saying that he is going to become the best batsman New Zealand has ever produced. He was that good. I had no doubts.
He doesn’t think on those lines, he has immense respect for what the greats like Martin Crowe have done. He never considered himself in that league. All he has been interested in is becoming better than he was. And that’s his greatest strength. That drives him. A year before he died, Martin Crowe wrote an article “We are seeing the dawn of New Zealand’s greatest batsman”. Great batsman, greater human being, that’s Kane.
(As told to Sriram Veera)