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Journalism of Courage
The Kiwis manager Dave Currie has had a number of responsibilities to take care of during the last seven weeks. However,his most important duty that he generally tends to on match eve has been to provide a home-feel for the players by creating a sort of mini-New Zealand within the dressing room.
And,just like he has done in dressing-rooms across venues in both India and Sri Lanka,Currie spent a major part of Monday putting up six large-size postcards,depicting the major sights of New Zealand on one of the walls. In addition to one with kids playing beach cricket,the postcards mainly carry some of the more famous and scenic sights from back home.
They have been on the road for well over a month,battling it out in the heat and humidity of the subcontinent. But in creating a home away from home environment in the dressing-room,the Black Caps have found a novel technique of levelling the odds even if only by a slight margin. And Currie believes it has played an integral role in the Kiwis run so far,where they have transformed from rank-outsiders to semifinalists.
There are two more,much bigger posters I will be putting up later in the day. One is of the white fern and the other a New Zealand flag. Those are the last images that the players will see before they step out of the dressing-room on to the field to represent their country. The theme of our World Cup campaign has been about taking immense pride in playing and winning for New Zealand, says Currie.
Another placard,much wider and longer,that has adorned New Zealand dressing-rooms carries the slogan Good Luckwe are with you all the way across the centre,while including hundreds of thumbnail images of fans wishing the team ahead of the World Cup. This came about after a competition that was held during the New Zealand-Pakistan series,where the fans had to send in their wishes. The best of the lot have been featured on the poster, explains Currie.
While Jesse Ryder has been the teams official DJ for quite a while now,there is only one artist who is featured in the dressing-room prior to any match. There is a Kiwi artist called Dave Dobbin,who sings songs about New Zealand,and he had come to meet the boys before we left. It is his songs that play before they step onto the field. Its all about providing them with the New Zealand feel, he says.
Balm for victims
The earthquake in Christchurch,which occurred just prior to the teams opening match,had a huge effect on the teams morale to begin with,adds coach John Wright. And Currie admits the New Zealand camp did feel helpless seeing the horrific images from back home. We desperately wanted to help the victims but the only thing we could do from here was to win our matches and provide inspiration for people back home. And it has indeed been a huge motivation for the players. Thousands of fans have been staying up through the night following our progress as the telecast of the matches start only at 10 at night back home, he says.
The New Zealand cricket board,in fact,had flown a couple of Christchurch survivors for the game against Sri Lanka in Mumbai,and meeting them left the team feeling even more motivated towards their cause. One of them was a crane-driver who had tried to look for survivors by going through the rubble for 17 hours. All he found was 80 dead bodies, says Currie.
Having seen the team rise amazingly following a horrible run in the build up to the World Cup,Wright hopes the home feel just pushes his wards to create history by taking the Black Caps into their first final. They can get a close-to-home feeling looking at these pictures and it is a sort of inspiration for the boys, he says.
The Kiwis spent 10 days in Mumbai before leaving for their quarter-final in Dhaka,and Currie insists the players had started considering the city as a second-home. We only hope now that we get a chance to go back there and win the World Cup there, he says.
