Chris Wood and the All Whites celebrate a goal against The Gambia. Photo / Photosport
Chris Wood and the All Whites celebrate a goal against The Gambia. Photo / Photosport
OPINION:
Sport's latest winners and losers, including New Zealand football fans and the long wait to see the All Whites on home soil.
WINNER - Kyle Jamieson
There have been no signs of second-season blues for the Kiwi pace bowler.
Jamieson has had a great first test against India withsix wickets, most of them top-order batsmen. His overall 2020 and 2021 test bowling figures are similar.
The Tim Southee-Trent Boult partnership has laid an amazing foundation for our pace bowling stocks, and Jamieson is taking full advantage.
He has collected more than 50 test wickets already, at an average around 15. Oh yes, he's also averaging nearly 40 with the bat. Remarkable.
Kyle Jamieson, left, celebrates the wicket of India's Ravichandaran Ashwin during the day four of their first test in Kanpur. Photo / AP
WINNER - Tim Southee
Crazy as it seems, it can be argued that Tim Southee is on track to challenge Richard Hadlee's legendary Kiwi mark of 431 test wickets, a world record at the time.
Like Jamieson, Southee has had a fabulous first test in India - hardly a pace bowling paradise - with eight wickets at a magic 18 apiece.
The current All Whites side, led superbly by EPL striker Chris Wood, has so much potential but almost no way of showing it to the New Zealand public.
Or to put it another way: When is the last time you watched the All Whites play?
Chris Wood in action for New Zealand against Curacao. Photosport
WINNER - Frank Williams
The Formula One team boss, who has just passed away aged 79, was an incredible man.
The Brit continued to lead his Williams team, winning more drivers and constructors titles, after a 1986 car crash which left him wheelchair-bound. Williams was told he would be lucky to live another 10 years, and became one of the world's oldest surviving tetraplegics.
Williams was the defiant little team that took on big names like Ferrari and won. Sadly, the Williams team has been in decline, trapped in an F1 no man's land between the big guns and their feeder systems.
In an interview last year, Williams said: "I can't say I've loved every minute of it, because moments have been very difficult – I've lost my wife, I've lost drivers. But Formula One has been very good to me. I've always been nuts about speed since when I was a boy, I'd drive around pretending I was a driver – that sort of nonsense."
His Williams team won seven world titles via seven drivers (from six different countries): Alan Jones, Keke Rosberg, Nelson Piquet, Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve.
Following his passing, some of the nicest words came from the Mercedes world champion Lewis Hamilton, a fellow Brit, who described Williams as one of the kindest people he had met in F1, and "a racer and a fighter at heart".
LOSERS - Black Ferns
The once-great national rugby side needs to get its act together quickly, with New Zealand hosting the World Cup next year.
At this point, after a disastrous northern tour, it's not so much about winning the trophy, but putting up credible performances against increasingly impressive opponents.
WINNER - Meikayla Moore
The Kiwi/Liverpool footballer's interview with the English club's inspirational EPL manager Jurgen Klopp elicited a great response about his support for the Rainbow Laces campaign, which encourages a positive attitude towards the LGBT+ community.
