Why Australia is still the heavyweight in trans-Tasman fight

Captain Kane Williamson holds the winner's Mace as New Zealand players celebrate victory on the final day of the ICC World Test Championship Final in England

Something quite peculiar happened to Australian sport fans in the aftermath of New Zealand’s win in the inaugural World Test Championship final.

Victory by the traditional cricket minnows over superpowers India in Southampton fried our brains to the extent that some suggested us Aussies should be bowing down in deference to our superior sporting cousins across the Tasman.

It was a mighty feat, no doubt. David beats Goliath (we think that makes Australia Saul, sitting on the sidelines ruing that dastardly David Boon and his run-rate penalty) and rightfully inspired global tributes, most relying heavily on boxing analogies. The Black Caps were once again “punching above their weight”. Very true.

But comparing New Zealand (population 5 million) to Australia (25 million) as a sporting nation is like sticking light-middleweight boxer Tim Tszyu into the ring with rising heavyweight Justis Huni. Tszyu would get a few jabs in but, in the end, the two are fighting in completely different weight classes.

How so? On the surface, it seems NZ blows us away when you consider we’re five times bigger.

New Zealand dusts us in rugby union – more a religion than a sport in the Shaky Isles – and has risen to the top of the charts in most forms of cricket during what has been deemed their “golden era”. That cuts deep for sports fans such as your AWAAT correspondent who loves both of those sports.

But widen the scope to most of the other big global events and it really is no contest. When the Tour de France pushed off from Brittany last weekend, there were 10 Australians in the peloton, including yellow jersey contender Richie Porte. New Zealand had none. World No.1 tennis player Ash Barty was on Centre Court this week, the best chance of the 14 Aussies competing in the singles draw at Wimbledon. New Zealand had none.

We’ve been rather good at tennis over the years. We’ve won the Davis Cup 28 times, second only to the United States, and 35 Australians have won major tennis titles compared to one New Zealander.

We’ve won 17 golf majors, New Zealand two.

In soccer, New Zealand can thank Australia for moving out of FIFA’s Oceania zone. But it’s not like either of us are about to contend for a World Cup.

The Kiwis rule the America’s Cup. Remember that? It’s the thing we won in 1983 and haven’t thought about since. There have actually been plenty of Aussies win the Auld Mug, they were just competing on boats paid for by others.

Eight Australians played in the world’s best basketball competition, the NBA, this season. There was one Kiwi.

We will enter the Tokyo Olympics as a serious medal chance in the men’s and women’s basketball tournaments – NZ won’t even have a team there.

In fact, the Kiwis won’t have many teams in Tokyo. It’s not how they do the Olympics.

Instead, they stick to what they’re good at – rowing, sailing, throwing events, equestrian, rugby sevens – and forget the rest. It’s worked well for them but we’re not exactly lagging behind.

Australia has won 150 Olympic gold medals, NZ 46. We’ve won 510 Olympic medals of any colour, NZ 120. Sounds about right.

The 1984 Olympics was a low point in trans-Tasman relations. Kiwis would ask us, “what do Carl Lewis and Australia have in common? Four gold medals”. Meanwhile, they had eight – all from their Holy Trinity of rowing, sailing and equestrian. (Our comeback to the Carl Lewis gag was that NZ was just sitting down on the job … boom tish!)

New Zealand has won Olympic gold medals in 10 different sports. Australia has won gold in 20. We do have our own areas of speciality. For instance, Australia has won more gold medals in swimming alone than New Zealand has won in every other Olympic sport. But generally we’re in everything, having a stab at it all.

The Kiwis sent 195 athletes to the Rio Olympics, we sent 420. But our ratio of medals per athlete was roughly the same.

“Per capita” is a term you’ll start to hear a lot from your Kiwi mates when the Olympics begin. They are, indeed, one of the world’s best Olympic nations on a medals per capita basis – sixth best for gold medals and 10th for total medals – but that’s not the medal table Australia looks at.

We aim to be top five, taking on the United States, Britain, Russia, Germany, China and the like.

And we choose to put most of our resources into the sports where those Olympic superpowers excel – swimming, cycling, basketball, athletics.

Back to that boxing analogy … we’re Huni trying to take on the heavyweights of world sport (with some question marks over our firepower) while New Zealand sticks to the light-middleweights.

The Winter Olympics is where Australia has taken what you might call an NZ path. And it’s worked. We send small teams, targeting specific disciplines. We’ve won 15 Winter Olympic medals, five of them gold. NZ has three medals, none of them gold.

Yes, that cricket result stung a little, even though many Aussies were happy for the Kiwis to win for once. We’re still (easily) the most successful cricket nation on earth.

What annoys AWAAT is that we won’t have the chance to play the Black Caps over the next phase of the World Test Championship between 2021 and 2023. Not once.

If you found that cricket result in Southampton tough, cringe at the thought of the Wallabies playing against the All Blacks, and pound the table at the idea of Australia plummeting down the medal table in Tokyo, think of those six little letters that dominate Australian sport: AFL and NRL.

Two competitions that see potential Olympic champions, global cricket, golf or tennis stars instead become heroes for a bunch of inner-city suburbs. Australia … undefeated in Australian football and the NRL for 160 years and counting.

Bad call of the week

Remember former England batsman Ian Bell? Think hard. Yes, the Sherminator. That guy – the one with a Test average of 42 and the best cover drive in cricket (record scratch …).

Bell was interviewed by Wisden this week and asked to name the greatest exponents of cricket’s best shots. Sachin Tendulkar had the best straight drive, he said. Alastair Cook was the best cutter. Ben Stokes was the best reverse sweeper, Joe Root the No.1 sweeper. Kevin Pietersen hit the best straight sixes and Rohit Sharma was the best player of the pull shot.

But what about the cover drive?

“(I) will go with myself. There are a few good ones now – Babar Azam I like. Virat Kohli, obviously I have a lot of time for – but I’ll get myself in there,” Bell said.

Win of the week

Race 1 of the Capalaba greyhound meeting last Sunday answered one of life’s biggest questions: is cake nice or bad?

Lining up in the pink rug from box 8 was pre-race favourite Cake Is Nice, which jumped quickly and took the lead. But as the line approached, litter and stablemate Cake Is Bad began to loom. We can confirm Cake Is Nice after edging Cake Is Bad in a quinella for the ages.

BC’s tip of the week

Powerful stable Godolphin have the Sprint Series Final at Flemington with noted fresh campaigner Isaurian. Brendan Cormick says Isaurian (Race 8 No.1) has won at five of his six first-up performances (better than BC’s strike rate) and has been primed for his first race-day appearance since running third to stablemate Roheryn on Boxing Day last year with recent trials and jump-outs.

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Twitter: @simmomac