The first test at Lords is about to begin and while I have made my opinions fairly clear on this match, there is one thing that happened during the lead up to this series that I haven't really commented on yet. last week Ross Taylor admitted that he had moved on from the loss of the captaincy last year and just wanted to concentrate on success in England. This seems in stark contrast to his comments in March, right after the third test at Eden Park where he admitted to 'not feeling comfortable' in the dressing room with the team. Now there are a few things infuriating about that interview:
- That he even gave an interview the day after that test match at all
- That he was foolish enough to say a statement like that which was always going to be exploded over the news and distract from a very impressive series for his team
- That the media would then use that statement, never mind what he might have actually meant by it (see below), to constantly suggest disquiet in the team and keep the drama rolling for another 6 weeks, and finally
- That we the public would start believing this nonsense
It's this last point I want to look at right now.
Just to lay it all my cards on the table, I do not believe for one second that Taylor's comment after the third test was meant to be interpreted as anything other than this: due to his absence during the South Africa tour (and the reasons behind that absence) it was a little bit awkward being back in the changing rooms with the team, under the captain and coach that had figured so prominently in said absence and this would naturally take time to heal. To me this seems a natural reaction to the question of how he had coped being back in the team again, but no no no we had to watch as every paper and news bulletin lead with this as if it were a story - usually insinuating if not blatantly stating, that there was clearly still a divide between captain, batsman and coach. I believe this was an appalling exaggeration of what Taylor said - whether or not you think he should have said anything or not is a discussion for a different day - and because of the reaction there was no way that either party was going to try and clarify the statement.
Thus you allow the subsequent articles to lead with lines like '...after Taylor's indication that there were still problems within the team' which is one statement jumping from context to context to context like different dimensions. Now that he has admitted to moving on from the whole episode we can expect to see the following '...and the Black Caps, a team that played under the pressure of a split dressing room for two months while Taylor was rehabilitated...'
This requires us to ask the following question, do players need to be more careful about what and when they say things? To which I would say yes probably but only for the sake of not distracting the team. Not because of what the media might do with what they say. The onus should be on us not to take every headline we see in the papers and ignore the context, the nuance or the simple plain truth. Remember that media is a business and sensation sells so they will hype anything to make you read/buy their product. We need to learn to read and separate the facts from the speculation and misinformation - for instance the second paragraph of this article which seems tame enough until you realise that it basically says that Taylor didn't tour SA because Hesson was a 'key figure' in his ousting. Hesson WAS the key figure, for a start, and to reduce Taylor's decision to one of player vs. coach misses the point of the whole episode which was as much about New Zealand Cricket as it was about Hesson; the word they want is 'subsequently' not 'consequently'. We should demand better.
It is true that players/coaches ought to be careful how they respond to media questions - answers should be well thought out as they can be misinterpreted. At the end of the day however, the media is a filter that information goes into and then appears on the other side, often altered; players/coaches appear to understand this (even though they still make mistakes) but I am concerned that the public remain ignorant.
Good luck to the Black Caps tonight
Well that's it from here and I hope you join me again
It's good bye for now
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