DHARAMSALA: Less than 36 hours before he would have to walk out to toss against India, New Zealand captain Tom Latham was up in his hotel room in Dharamshala at 1 AM on Saturday, cheering for the All Blacks. On the screen was the Sam Cane-led New Zealand rugby team crushing Argentina in the semifinal of the ongoing World Cup in Paris.
Such was the dominance that during the 44-6 win over Argentina, All Blacks had only 14 players on the field for the last six minutes not wanting to risk Scott Barrett, who saw yellow for slapping the ball down in the 66th minute, missing the final. The three-time champions reached their fifth final — the only time they lost was against South Africa in 1995 — and will face the winners of the South Africa-England semifinals which was set to be played on Saturday night. “I’ll be watching it, probably have some popcorn. Couldn’t care who wins, to be honest. It will be an interesting contrast of styles,” New Zealand coach Ian Foster said in the press conference about the semifinal clash in Paris.
Going into the World Cup with a loss against Springboks (South Africa) and kicking off the campaign with another defeat against the hosts, France, the All Blacks came under a lot of criticism. However, they have turned the tide and now are on the brink of making history. And it comes as no surprise that even in the middle of a Cricket World Cup, the players are staying up to watch the All Blacks in India. After all, rugby is perhaps the most passionately followed sport in New Zealand. Cricket comes after. Last Saturday (October 14), the Black Caps team stayed up to watch the closely contested quarterfinal against Ireland in their hotel rooms in Chennai.
“We had early golf for the next day, but we all wanted to stay up to make sure we watched the boys and it was an unbelievable game against Ireland,” Lockie Ferguson told this daily. “We know how much it means to people back home, sport in our country, especially, rugby and cricket. And, a lot of the rugby boys, love their cricket. They played pretty high level when they were younger and a few of our boys played rugby as well. I think I saw a 1.1 million on Sky Sports (concurrent viewership) fans got up to watch the game early morning. I know that’s not a lot of numbers in India, but that’s a big chunk of New Zealand getting up. It’s amazing,” added the New Zealand pacer.
Unlike the All Blacks — one of the strongest teams in world rugby — Black Caps are often seen as dark horses for every global event. And this has continued despite the New Zealand team making two ODI World Cup finals, one T20 World Cup final and winning a World Test Championship final in the last eight years. In the ongoing cricket World Cup, too, they were starting without their captain Kane Williamson, who played one game before getting injured again and have missed some crucial players to injury.
Yet, they have won all four games and are getting ready to face India in their fifth at the HPCA Stadium in Dharamshala on Sunday. Understandably, they do try to take inspiration from the All Blacks. “Obviously, they play under such amount of pressure because they’ve got such an epic record. At the same time, they are such good ambassadors for our country and very humble in their victory,” said Ferguson. For Latham, it is all about New Zealanders rallying together. “Kiwis support each other wherever that may be around the world and we’re certainly no different in supporting the All Blacks and obviously we’ve had so much support back home for us here and this World Cup as well,” he said on Saturday.
However unfair it might be, in sport, legacies are often determined by global titles. In what is the most experienced squad in the history of the rugby World Cup, as many as 16 of them would be itching to avenge the 2019 semifinal loss and achieve glory. For most of them would be playing their last global event.
In the Black Caps, too, quite a few are playing what is their last ODI World Cup. And after two consecutive defeats in the final, they are determined to go all the way. While All Blacks are just one game and a week away from doing so, the Black Caps have had the best possible start to the tournament. And in their parallel quest for glory, Blackcaps are taking inspiration from All Blacks to push themselves towards their dreams.