Australia v New Zealand: Blackcaps’ horror injury toll as Kane Williamson misses SCG Test
New Zealand’s horror tour took a sad turn on Friday at the SCG, with the battered tourists forced to make five changes – including losing captain and star Kane Williamson – in a stunning upheaval.
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It was the biggest upheaval to a Kiwi sporting team since Suzie the Waitress allegedly cast her wicked spell over the All Blacks 25 years ago.
New Zealand had five changes to their team for the Sydney Test and rarely has an international side arrived for the last five day contest of the summer in such a state of confusion.
Back in 1995, when the All Blacks lost the World Cup rugby final to South Africa in extra time, a significant number of Kiwi players were battling food poisoning and careless whispers pointed the finger at a waitress called Suzie who served the team at dinner before the game.
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There was so suggestion of foul play at the SCG, just massive confusion and uncertainty as a mysterious virus floored a quarter of the team and several staff members.
Fox sports commentator and former Kiwi gloveman Ian Smith called the Black Caps the Ripley’s XI as in Ripley’s Believe It or Not.
Glenn Phillips had his wet suit on surfing in New Zealand on match eve when he received an SOS to jump on the next plane out of Auckland and get to the SCG where he was presented with his first Test cap as one of four keeper-batsmen in an oddly shaped top order.
Smith asked could you believe Phillips could be catching breaks in the surf one day to getting the biggest break of his career the next?
That Tom Latham could suddenly be captaining the Kiwis?
That Jeet Raval, who has scored seven runs in his last five Test innings, could get another chance, that Tim Southee, one of the bowlers of the series, could be rested due to workload issues.
With all the carnage happening around him, it was a surprise Southee did not play.
Work load issues are all good and well but when the Titantic is sinking beneath the waves there is no point being ordered to take a day off.
It all came to pass after captain Kane Williamson, fellow batsman Henry Nicholls and spinner Mitchell Santner, were ruled out with a virus an hour before the toss.
They arrived at the ground on Friday but were not up to playing.
Williamson batted in the nets but at one point had to put his hand up and halt a bowler running into bowl at him because he was having a coughing fit.
Southee soon appeared as a substitute fieldsman where his presence only seem to enflame the debate as to why he was not playing.
The Kiwi illness toll sparked old stories about how sick you have to be to miss a cricket game and some of the ailments which have struck down players over the years.
Australian batsman Gavin Stevens was famous for never playing another game of first class cricket after contracting hepatitis on the 1959-60 Test tour of Pakistan.
He even wrote a book called Death on The Subcontinent, the title of which was a reference to news reports that he had actually passed away.
An mega-dehydrated Dean Jones was wobbling on his last legs when he made a famous double century against India in Madras and Craig McDermott was rushed to hospital for surgery on a twisted bowel during the Lord’s Test in 1993.
No case at the SCG was anywhere near that severe but there was disruption none the less.
Kiwis team physiotherapist Vijay Vallabh told Fox Cricket: “It started on New Year’s Day. They came down to training and a bit fatigued and achy so we sent them home and they saw a doctor and confirmed viral illness.
“We did all we could with sleep and fluids. They were desperate to play.’’
From the moment their fast bowlers arrived a day late due to a delayed flight for the opening Test of the tour in Perth this has been a tour where nothing has gone right for the Kiwis.
They looked flat and listless during the opening session and for much of the opening day.
And they the ones who took the field.
Originally published as Australia v New Zealand: Blackcaps’ horror injury toll as Kane Williamson misses SCG Test
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