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Kane Williamson and Trevor Bayliss steal the show at World Cup

The cricket world has fallen hard for Kiwi Kane Williamson after a priceless reaction to a prestigious honour in his team’s lowest moment.

3 min read
July 16, 2019 - 8:21AM
Kane Williamson’s star is shining brighter.
Kane Williamson’s star is shining brighter.

The cameras are turning off, the world’s media is packing up and shipping off after the impossibly dramatic Cricket World Cup final — but there is still no sign of Kiwi captain Kane Williamson dropping the nice guy act.

In fact fresh videos emerging overnight in the wake of New Zealand’s desperately unlucky World Cup anguish suggest the Black Caps skipper is putting on the humble hero cape thicker than ever.

Even in the face of a tied super over and swirling drama surrounding the legitimacy of England’s World Cup final triumph, Williamson hasn’t flinched from being class personified — the archetypal gentleman.

Nothing showed it more than the captain’s priceless reaction to the moment he was told just before England’s ICC Cricket World Cup trophy presentation that he was about to be named player of the tournament.

With the world still scrambling to make sense of the dramatic ending to a game branded by many to be the best contest cricket has ever known, Williamson still had selflessness close to his chest when he realised he stood alone as the best player during the game’s quadrennial showpiece.

Nice guys finish equal first.
Nice guys finish equal first.

“Who, me?” he said after being told the honour was all his.

He seemed almost embarrassed to be the centre of attention, even if just for a moment, before England players began popping their champagne corks.

He’s proven time and time again, the humble hero caper is not an act, but a way of life.

Forged into the heart of New Zealand’s cricket culture by former captain Brendon McCullum and then perfected by his successor Williamson.

It was there for all to see in the post-match press conference when he gushed at the moment he was asked if he believes the rest of the world should be playing cricket at the same level of class his team demands?

He was briefly brought unstuck by the question and had to scratch his noggin for the right words, but eventually he — of course — found a way to deliver them with grace.

“Everybody is allowed to be themselves, and everybody should be a little bit different as well,” he said.

“That is probably my best answer — just be yourself and try and enjoy what you do.”

It is really not hard to see why the world has fallen for the star batsman.

Even after being told of the questionable umpiring law interpretation that gifted Ben Stokes six runs from a boundary overthrow instead of five runs, Williamson wouldn’t bite on the controversy that the entire cricketing world has been chomping into.

The Black Caps captain on Monday said the final at Lord’s “feels like an average dream,” the New Zealand Herald reports.

“At the end of the day nothing separated us, no one lost the final, but there was a crowned winner and there it is,” said the famously level-headed Williamson.

Williamson told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking that the final was “pretty tough to get your head around — I think it will take time to reflect with a rational mind”.

“It was a really good effort to get knockout stages,” he said.

“We were forced to play a style of game because of the conditions and adopted that really well. We thought it took us all the way but it was not to be.

“The rules are the rules and we all try and play by them as did England who also had a very good campaign.”

Kane Williamson doesn’t have an enemy on the planet.
Kane Williamson doesn’t have an enemy on the planet.

The Kiwis lost because they had scored fewer boundaries than England, after the teams were tied in normal and extra time.

But even there, most observers regard boundaries as irrelevant in a sport about runs and wickets as one former international put it.

Williamson told Radio Sport Breakfast: “It’s a shame that a World Cup final was decided like it was after two teams went at it for such a long period of time and long campaign.

“The rules were there from the start we have to swallow that up and accept it.”

The now infamous decision to award England six runs instead of five, when a throw deflected off Ben Stokes’ bat, was one of “millions of things” you could dissect, said Williamson.

“It will take a little bit of time…you get waves. You just forget about it for 10 minutes then it hits you again … goodness me what was all that about, was that real?” he said.

“It was an amazing day, amazing game of cricket, but a real shame it was decided after teams couldn’t be separated at two attempts at playing cricket but that’s the way it goes.”

Meanwhile, Aussie coach Trevor Bayliss, the man that led England to its first ever Cricket World Cup victory, has also been praised as a humble hero of the tournament — refusing to get in the way of his players’ moment in the sun.

Even holding the trophy aloft seemed uncomfortable for the former NSW coach.

It really was a World Cup for the nice guys.

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Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/sport/cricket/kane-williamson-and-trevor-bayliss-steal-the-show-at-world-cup/news-story/a5eda2be61a9d7e5a92f049361bfb6c5