Jason Pine: We were lucky to have Kane Williamson
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Kane Williamson has pulled stumps, retiring from international cricket.
The big question is, why now?
Mid-series in England, with a mouth-watering test schedule over the next seven months, including a four-test tour of Australia —the one unconquered frontier for this NZ test team— and on the cusp of joining a very exclusive group of cricketers to have scored 10 thousand test runs.
Why would Kane Williamson retire now?
Firstly, he's never been motivated by his personal numbers. I don't think he could tell you how many test runs he's scored, but I reckon he might be able to tell you about the test victories he's been a part of.
That's where he differed from the only other player who could challenge him as our greatest ever – Sir Richard Hadlee. Paddles was tremendously stats-driven, and his quest to reach personal milestones was to the immense benefit of New Zealand. The fact he wanted to achieve milestones and chase records helped the teams he played in achieve amazing things.
Two very different players. Two very different approaches. Two equally effective methods.
But Kane Williamson wouldn't have thought to himself, "If I hang around, I could bring up 10-thousand test runs."
He would have thought, "What is best for the team?"
If the best thing for the team was for him not to play, he would happily have carried the drinks. That was never in question, of course; certain players live above the selection line and if they're fit, they play. Kane was always above the line.
If he was on 99 not out and the best thing for the team was to declare, he would have declared.
If he got a duck but the team won, he would genuinely have been happier than if he got a double-hundred and they lost.
His personal numbers were only relevant in the context of what those numbers —those runs— contributed to what the team achieved.
And in a sport which is so stats-driven, and in which players live and die by the numbers, they were almost completely incidental to him.
A good friend of mine messaged me about this, this morning and said, "Kane was a superstar who never sought to be a superstar."
That sums it up very well. In the most individual of team sports, he was never anything other than the ultimate team man.
We were lucky to have him. To witness his greatness, to benefit from his genius, to enjoy his generational ability to play a game we love so much.
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