Hey, I made it in to the Dom-Post

Well, the Stuff.co.nz web site any­way (Hamish McDouall’s crick­et blog to be precise):

Here is my friend Dan, seeth­ing with vol­can­ic energy, about the Napier test:

“I’m still furi­ous about Sunday afternoon’s col­lapse, not because it was so unne­ces­sary (and not because I’d just texted a friend say­ing lit­er­ally “we won’t bat again in this game”) but because the day before a 19-year-old had bowled his heart out, and us in to a win­ning pos­i­tion, and the seni­or play­ers – the guys he should be look­ing up to and learn­ing from – showed him that he needn’t have bothered. They demon­strated once again that mediocrity and a “near enough is good enough” atti­tude will get you in this team and keep you there and that no amount of drive, com­mit­ment, tal­ent and spunk will prompt your team­mates to raise their game.

“Imagine if Southee had joined the Australian team – every­one around him would be driv­ing him to get bet­ter and achieve more. For the Black Caps he’s already good enough to be picked for as long as he wants.

“Where’s the motiv­a­tion going to come from? If McCullum’s out on Sunday is any­thing to go by it won’t be from the vice-captain. But then I’ve nev­er for­giv­en him for this: McCullum c Silva b Muralitharan 0(1)”

Now that’s writ­ing that bristles with so much fis­sion it could power Donetsk or oth­er indus­tri­al East European conurbations.

Cheers, Hamish.