Paul Lewis: Fans deserve more credit

Kyle Mills believes the media

Evil media that we are - apparently we got John Wright selected as New Zealand cricket coach.

Kyle Mills can be forgiven his little outburst broadcast by Radio Sport's Tony Veitch. His frustration came on the back of a move which shocked many - dismantling the player-led Black Caps structure which had led them to a point where they looked sicker than someone who had just chugged a strontium-90 milkshake.

"What I have learned recently is that the media think they have all the answers and express this to the public; and the public buy into it," he said. "It's a sad state of affairs and not just in cricket - in sport in general throughout New Zealand. I think they [the media] have a lot to answer for."

But not as much as the Black Caps. Mills makes it sound as though the vast changes made in New Zealand cricket were the fault of some applied campaigning in the media. That would be true if it wasn't for a few minor facts: a whitewash in India; a whitewash in Bangladesh (!) and 11 straight one-day losses.

It goes even deeper than that. As suggested in this column last week, the Black Caps had stopped looking like they were out of form. They had begun to look incompetent.

But never mind the media. Mills' comments show how far some of the players had moved away from the fans and even from New Zealand Cricket.

To suggest that the evil media had warped the minds of cricket followers bestows too much credibility in one direction and none at all to a weak-minded public who sink to their knees in gratitude when the media delivers a verdict. Clearly, New Zealand cricket fans have no knowledge of, or feeling for, the game they support and should always follow the players' opinions.

Mills' comments also reflect poorly on members of the board of NZC - who had obviously decided that, finally, enough was enough. Apparently they, too, need only read a paragraph in a newspaper to fall in a heap, clutching at the remnants of their own minds.

If the power brokers at NZC are that suggestible, I'd like to make the following strong pronouncement: that, in this time of flux, Paul Lewis should be hired by NZC; that he should travel the world with the team where his principal function would be checking out the best restaurants and bars and writing the occasional press release to assure all those gullible fans that everything is all right; oh, and that he be paid half a million goo-goos a year for doing so.

Keen readers of this column will have noticed a bit of a pause then. That was me, waiting for the phone to ring.

I am reminded of the statements of All Black captains Tana Umaga and Sean Fitzpatrick. Both, during their tenure, said in different ways that they welcomed the intense scrutiny and criticism of the All Blacks by fans and media. It helped them win, they said.

I am also reminded of the late, great sportswriter Terry McLean, whose philosophy bears re-examination. You could cover a club match and be critically gentle because these were players playing to the best of their limited abilities, said TP. You could step up the critical faculties for provincial matches but could still be forgiving.

But, when it came to national representation, a sportswriter was in full critical mode - because there was no greater honour than to play for one's country.

That was the thing about the Black Caps. The players had the money and the power - but the honour looked as though it had become a right.

Having said that, however, some of the media-led protests about Sonny Bill Williams boxing instead of prostrating himself at the foot of the Great God Rugby have grown so shrill lately that they may only have been heard by dogs.

There are those who don't approve of Sonny Bill and what they see as a carpetbagger - a man who wants a World Cup winners' medal and who will then shoot through; someone who has no real attachment to the game.

Most of the hooting and hissing has come from media commentators huffing and puffing about Sonny Bill turning his back on the game in World Cup year and how he could be hurt in the ring. Sonny Bill is far more likely to be injured in a rugby game or even a training session than he is in the ring. Just looking at the high-octane game that is rugby makes that obvious to anyone with knowledge of the game.

It's not exactly unprecedented either. Kevin Skinner, one of the most famous of All Black props, was a heavyweight boxing champion who also played rugby for Otago.

Have you seen Sonny Bill lately? He's as fit as a rat; is built like a tree with hips; muscles on his fingernails. He looks as though you could hit him with a petrol tanker without obvious effect. Worst case scenario - he gets knocked out by his next opponent, Scott Lewis, next month. January to September for recovery ... should be all right by then, don't you think?

I must admit that I offered some negative thoughts about Sonny Bill when he was coming to rugby; curled my lip, even, when I saw All Black coach Graham Henry acting as a taxi driver/tour guide for Williams' agent Khoder Nasser before Williams signed for the NZRU. But I'll tell you what I saw on tour with the All Blacks in November - a rare beast; a player with the ability to make a mockery of today's tight defences. He is quite possibly a World Cup-winning point of difference. He's that good - and we have barely started to tap the oil well of Williams' talent. If he's using the NZRU, they are also using him - and so they should. Professional sport is all about results.

The Black Caps didn't have them. End of story.