Editorial: Let's win this Cup, but lose the hostility

JP Duminy of South Africa bowled by Nathan McCullum of New Zealand during the ICC Cricket World Cup Quarter Final match. Photo / Getty Images

Opinion

Sixth time lucky? All New Zealanders will be hoping so when our national side play Sri Lanka in Colombo tonight for a place in cricket's World Cup final. The task has proved too much for previous New Zealand squads that appeared rather better equipped than this one. But Daniel Vettori's team gained valuable momentum in upsetting South Africa in the quarter-finals. They know that, a frustrating inconsistency notwithstanding, they can beat any
country on their day. They should also know that most followers of the game here will want them to keep a new-found aggression in their play within acceptable bounds.

The victory over South Africa was blighted by an incident in which Vettori and drinks carrier Kyle Mills breached the International Cricket Council's code of conduct for the first time in their careers. The pair were deemed to have goaded Francois du Plessis after the runout of key batsman AB de Villiers. Vettori was fined 90 per cent of his match fee and Mills 120 per cent. Du Plessis was fined 50 per cent of his match fee for the brief pushing and
shoving that ensued.

The nature of the fines indicated where the match referee felt the blame lay. It was clearly considered that a line of acceptability - the difference between the normal chat on a cricket field and verbal harassment - had been crossed. It can hardly have helped that a water carrier, whose appearance after the fall of every wicket is annoying in itself, ludicrously took it upon himself to offer a few words.

Coach John Wright has defended those involved, saying "we've got to play with passion and they're showing that". Bowling coach Allan Donald would doubtless be equally unrepentant. The emphasis during his short time with the team has been on imbuing the bowlers with "attitude and intensity". Nathan McCullum, for one, showed he had got the message with his aggressive response to Sri Lankan batsman Mahela Jayawardene's refusal to accept he had
been caught during pool play.

Harnessed correctly, the right brand of aggression can permeate throughout the team, creating a buzz and purpose. But there is a world of difference between playing with passion and intensity and indulging in the sort of sledging that gave the ugly Australians of the recent past such a bad name around the world.

Theirs was a deliberate tactic. The Australians talked of sledging as the catalyst for the mental disintegration of their opponents. New Zealand captains, not least Stephen Fleming, have dabbled in the same tactics, and Vettori was doubtless seeking to impress on du Plessis the importance of his error in running out de Villiers. But New Zealanders would look askance if the Black Caps were to stoop to the blatant unpleasantness of the Australians. This is not
the way they want their team to go about gaining an edge.

Cricket fans will look to their team to play well tonight, but in a manner befitting the best traditions of New Zealand cricket. The great team of the 1980s, of which Wright was a major part, saw no need to indulge in excessive verbal niggle. Their present-day successors should make us proud of their performance and their conduct. The Dhaka incident must be a one-off.

Already, the team have achieved far more than most expected. Last year's wretched displays in limited-overs series in Bangladesh and India now seem like a bad dream. This year, they are the only team from outside the subcontinent to make the World Cup semi-finals. That fact alone indicates the importance of Sri Lanka's home advantage. They will start as the strong favourite. But so did South Africa. New Zealand's vice-captain, Ross Taylor, talks of how
the team want desperately "to make history". Let them do it with pride and panache.