Daniel Vettori: when New Zealand are in the World Cup the whole country unites behind the team
- Daniel Vettori played in five ICC Men’s World Cups during his career and this is the first one since 1996 that he will not play in
- New Zealand reached the final in 2015 and are looking to go one better in this tournament
In the first of a series of columns during the ICC Cricket World Cup, five-time World Cup star Daniel Vettori looks into how New Zealand are shaping up ahead of the tournament.
There’s very little that compares to an ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup when it comes to bringing a country together.
I was fortunate enough to be able to play in five tournaments and it all builds up to this, you’ve played together for so long and now it’s about getting ready for the conditions.
It’s exciting for both players and fans – this is the first one I haven’t played in since 1996 so at least I don’t have the stress anymore! That’s the best bit – I’m just really looking forward to being able to sit as a fan, which hasn’t happened often, to watch some really good cricket.
With everyone playing each other, I think it’s pretty sentimental for the New Zealand fans who, like me, grew up watching the side tour around the country and play every team in 1992.
Every game was important and almost felt like a final. It’s the same this year, whereas in other tournaments you’ve been able to manoeuvre around the group.
Watching New Zealand play, particularly in a World Cup, was really significant for me growing up. I was 13 during the 1992 tournament and you felt captured by it.
It took over the country. Mark Greatbatch at the top of the order hitting it everywhere, Martin Crowe having one of the best World Cups ever, beating Australia in the first game – all those things built something within the country.
That made the World Cup really special, and most people of my generation have strong memories of that tournament. Winning the first seven games obviously helps!
Playing at home gives you a chance to do that and while it won’t be the same this year, the players are capable of something special.
New Zealand are a lot of people’s second favourite team, they’ll get a lot of support. You sense the enjoyment, but the fun comes from winning – if you play well and get a country behind you, you can really make the competition memorable.
There are five or six teams who could win it, Australia have been favourites a lot but this time around there are any number of teams who could consider themselves up there.
I think New Zealand have a really good team, that’s a great starting point and they’re able to build around the batting of Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor in the middle order.
There are some exciting openers with Martin Guptill, an experienced attack built around Tim Southee and Trent Boult, exciting match-winners in the all-rounders and the combination of spin with Mitch Santner and Ish Sodhi.
It’s a team that should be really confident of where they’re at and they should go in feeling like they’re one of the favourites for the tournament because they’ve had the system which they’ve built around.
These are some of our greatest guys ever – so if they can pull off their best cricket, it’s going to be really exciting to see how far they can go.