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Guy Heveldt: Trophy-less Blackcaps squander golden decade of white-ball cricket
Guy Heveldt • March 11th, 2025 2:00 pm
Photo: Photosport
So, a golden decade of Blackcaps white-ball cricket has ended - and with no silverware to show for it.
After four finals and three semi-finals across the nine ICC global limited overs tournaments since and inclusive of the 2015 ODI World Cup and, sadly for the Blackcaps and their fans, no trophy has made the flight back with them.
To be honest, if you’d said to me about 12-15 years ago the NZ men’s cricket team would go on to make the knockout stage that many times in the decade that was to come, I would’ve taken that in a heartbeat.
I don’t want to be too negative, but sitting here now, it feels like a missed opportunity. A golden decade gone
Those 10 years have featured some of the greatest cricketers pur country has ever produced - nay, greats of the sport full stop. Williamson, Taylor, Guptill, Southee, Boult, Vettori, just to name a few. Throw in the likes of a random selection including Latham, Phillips, Henry, Santner, Neesham, Elliott and Conway and it’s been a decade of a wealth of talent.
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Now some of those players are obviously still playing and may have another cycle left in them. But most are either well into - or on the verge of - retirement in the next couple of years. And without them, I worry the best time to win may have passed by.
There are talented youngsters who will fill part of the void, don’t get me wrong. Crikey, all things being equal, Rachin Ravindra is showing he has the potential to match it with the very best to pull on the black cap. Throw in O’Rourke, Santner for a few more years, Jamieson and Phillips and you have the core of a decent enough team.
But we have gleefully ridiculed, revelled in and laughed at South Africa failing at every hurdle when it comes to their long-standing inability to breakthrough and claim a limited-overs trophy. And we still can until they do actually win one.
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But we also have to look in our own backyard. We have had a team and the players that, when put together, should have lifted a trophy by now.
They’ve been close. 2019 will always have an asterisk next to it and they put up a decent fight in the final of Champions Trophy that was heavily favoured towards the eventual winners. Meanwhile, their ODI and T20 deciders against the Aussies were fairly comprehensive defeats.
Sadly though, close is not close enough. As a hardcore, ardent cricket fan, I have loved the ride they have taken us on and the way they have played their cricket. I just feel a little bit empty at what has been missed.
In saying that, it is just the Champions Trophy - a tournament re-ignited by the ICC for revenue purposes and a tournament, in this case anyway, handed to them on a platter. And you all know how I feel about that.
