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HDPA: Is Blackcaps win our greatest sporting achievement?

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Thu, 24 Jun 2021, 5:31PM
(Photo / Photosport)
(Photo / Photosport)

HDPA: Is Blackcaps win our greatest sporting achievement?

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Thu, 24 Jun 2021, 5:31PM

Have the Black Caps just pulled off one of the greatest achievements in New Zealand sporting history? 

This is an incredible feat, to beat India.

India is the richest, biggest and most powerful cricket country in the world.

Their cricket board is worth somewhere between ten to 30 times what NZ Cricket’s worth.

To give you some perspective, our guys run on revenues equivalent to a county club in England.

India’s cricket board is estimated to be worth more than $1 billion. 

Indian cricket has 688 professional male cricketers to choose from in selecting their squad. 

New Zealand cricket has 134 professional male players. 

This was an absolute David vs Goliath battle. 

I realise to a lot of people, it won’t feel on par with the other great sporting moments.

Partly because tests are slow, drawn out affairs, the time zone sucked for us, and Covid border restrictions just killed off any chance of us heading over there to make an event out of it.

And maybe also some people have got used to the idea of these guys winning because they’ve been solid performers for such a long time – they’ve won eight out of their last nine tests.

But remember how it used to be. 

Bowled out for 45 by South Africa. 

To be able to get past that and also shake off the mental burden of the Cricket World Cup decider against England two years ago, takes a fair bit of discipline. 

This achievement is amazing.  

These guys are amazing.  

Some of the best Kiwi players we’ll probably ever see and definitely worth being entered into the history books as pulling off one of NZ’s greatest ever sporting wins.

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