El Niche Cache
April 24, 2020
Haere mai whanau,
Looks like we’ll settle into twice weekly roll out with the email thing, although things will stay fluid. Expect something on Monday and Friday afternoons. Plus, slide through whatever messaging route you want to take and get in touch with any questions for us to answer, or random ideas.
Scotty’s Word
A couple different things perked up my antenna over the past few days, starting with this interview from Luke Thomas with Israel Adesanya. I write about #KiwiUFC matters and entered that arena with zero fighting experience, so learning about Mixed Martial Arts has been a fun journey to embark on and tuning into Thomas’ MMA coverage has been instrumental in understanding the art of mixed martial arts. Thomas often speaks with City Kickboxing folk, primarily Adesanya and coach Eugene Bareman as well has having an extensive catalogue of Adesanya analysis.
This interview obviously zones in on some pando stuff - ‘what have you been upto during the pando? etc etc’. There were a few nuggets in here, even the basic stuff like Izzy waking up around mid-day and getting into breath-work, stretching and working out is interesting. I took notes on some analytical thoughts from Adesanya on his upcoming bout with Paulo Costa that will go down at some stage in 2020, depending on the status of planet earth and that’s where most of my funk sits.
The main thing when pondering how Adesanya vs Costa may look, came from Adesanya laying out how Costa moves forward in a straight line and throws a fairly simple collection of strikes. Costa is powerful, dynamic and brutal (went toe-to-toe with Yoel Romero) and Adesanya highlighted how his ability to have his opponent thinking about a fake, then another movement and so on, scrambles the opponent’s mind and actions. A simple way of viewing Adesanya is him being a counter-striker, best seen vs Robert Whittaker and also in the fight vs Romero; Romero did nothing that could be countered.
Having a little bit of insight from Adesanya has me eager to see this fight because there is a recipe in place, a framework in which we as fans can prep for Adesanya fights. An opponent (Costa) may back their power and ability to take a shot, thus strolling forward into Adesanya’s range, yet this becomes far more tricky when Adesanya’s twisting his hips to fake a kick, then using footwork to scramble the brain further and then landing a jab. One can’t simply walk forward at Adesanya and land their preferred shots, they’ll have to assess all the shit Adesanya is throwing at them.
There is also an ongoing narrative of angst between Adesanya and Jon Jones, which is poked at in every interview as well as them both going at each other on social media. What’s weird here is that Adesanya is enjoying this and has enjoyed this ever since he came into the UFC, perhaps with the aim to fight Jones and this is in contrast to coach Bareman’s comments about Jones. Bareman has consistently stated that as a kaumatua of CKB, they don’t really want to give Jones that opportunity because of the morals, values etc Jones has displayed. Bareman takes low key shots at Jones in saying this, while also leaning against taking that fight in the future - Adesanya’s all in ready to fuck Jones up. Strange, although I trust whatever CKB is up to.
I’ve thought far less about the following, some more weird shit though…
In Australia, both Todd Greenberg (NRL) and Raelene Castle (Rugby AU) have stepped aside from their roles as boss-dawgs. The pando has all sorts of victims and the past week has seen these two lose their jobs mid-pando, conveniently through pressure from Australian media and standard crazy Aussies. My Australian rugby knowledge isn’t great (apart from knowing that it’s a upper class sport) and it seems like Fox Sport were at the forefront of the media pressure on Castle, which sounds awfully similar to the NRL situation with Nine/Fox/Greenberg.
The common factor there is Fox Sports, being a broadcaster and major media outlet. Oh and the weird Aussies being weird Aussies. There are all sorts of angles to this, ultimately both the rugby and NRL situations come back to Aussies wanting to bring someone down, which is a vibe entrenched in their politics. Right when stability is probably useful, Australians want to bring someone down.
Cricket Australia is also in a bit of a mess, laid out by this Cricinfo piece.
Recent days have seen Spark Sport spark up their kiwi cricket content, unleashing a new era of cricket coverage in New Zealand. There are all sorts of little estuaries to paddle down from at this point, I’ll stick with rua…
Tahi - NZC has delivered financial losses for the past three years, so will the Spark Sport deal see them become financially viable? Remember NZC sold their soul to India which has seen cricket grounds in Aotearoa become advertising platforms for Indian companies, only to put up losses with their finances. This is something to watch out for in the coming years as we see what direction the finances of NZC head in.
Rua - NZC have partnered with a digital platform, despite putting zero effort into their Youtube content. I’ve ranted about this for years as every other major cricket nation has amazing Youtube content, while NZC neglect such opportunities. Will having a more digital focus see NZC jack up their Youtube stuff? Or will Spark say nah fuck that, all your digital shit is with us?
Was pretty chuffed in dropping the 27fm Sounds of Jahtearoa for April. This is the first edition and has only music from Aotearoa, so check that out for the local bangers.
Speaking of bangers, here are a couple recent projects for you hip-hoppers that I’ve been slapping…
Plus, TDE has been dropping new music…
Wildcard’s Notebook
While writing a big old thing about how different Blackcaps players have performed in Test matches at home and away, one little statty stuck out more than everything else. Stephen Fleming’s home/away splits. Most players score runs at a better average in home Tests, that’s the normal trend. Two to five runs better in home conditions, something like that. A few were close to even either way, a few more were slightly better away from home (particularly in the old days when we played way more away games). But Stephen Fleming was something else. Have a geeze at this wickedness...
Home Flem: 89 INN | 2947 RUNS | 33.87 AVE | 2 100s | 21 50s
Away Flem: 100 INN | 4225 RUNS | 45.92 AVE | 7 100s | 25 50s
Utter madness. And a complete outlier in the numbers... although there did seem to be a bit of a sneaky pattern around that era of New Zealand cricket, with those moist grassy seamers at home giving fellas like Daryl Tuffey, Jacob Oram, and Kyle Mills, for example, some enormous differences in home vs away numbers with the ball... except in the other direction. Lou Vincent had a similar tendency to Flem as well. Must have been something in the water in those National Bank/Clear Blackcaps days, dunno.
So now here’s a deeper peek at what Fleming was doing in his away days. First off, those seven centuries weren’t all against Zimbabwe or Bangladesh back in the day. He did score 202 once in Chattogram but he never tonned in nine innings in Zimbabwe. Nah, he spread the hundies around. Sri Lanka was the only country he scored multiple hundreds in aside from Aotearoa. He also raised the bat for triple figures in Australia (105 in Perth 2001), West Indies (130 in Bridgetown 2002), England (117 in Nottingham 2004, and South Africa (262 in Johannesburg 2006). Nine total hundreds scored in seven different countries. He also scored 92no in Pakistan once, setting a match-winning total with a 48 run partnership with Simon Doull at the end there (NZ won by 44 runs) but bloody Doully got stumped off Saqlain Mushtaq before Flem could get there. That was in 1996. Fleming was also dismissed for 91 vs Oz, 97 vs England, and 99 vs South Africa. Couldn’t go a whole yarn about Flem and not mention his conversion rate dramas, right?
He only averaged 29.26 in Australia which was his worst effort in a single country, second on that list? New Zealand. Every other nation he played Test cricket in he averaged more than the 33.87 he scored at home. Crazy, that. The best of them came under his own leadership, including all of his away centuries. 48.73 from 74 innings as a foreign captain. Being captain, it’s probably a relevant point to note that his away average rises to 52.36 when he won the toss as well. Also, only 12 of his 57 away Tests were victories but he averaged 71.13 in those games, as well as 54.68 in 21 away draws. Good fun.
Curiously that didn’t translate into his ODI form, where his numbers were ever so slightly down away compared to at home. Although he did score five of his eight ODI hundies away from Aotearoa... including that 134no at the 2003 World Cup in South Africa which is easily my first thought of him as an ODI cricketer. Jeez that was a top innings. Speaking of, here are some of Flem’s finest away innings in Tests...
That one was legendary for a couple reasons. First off, to tame a Sri Lankan bowling attack like that which included Muttiah Muralitharan and Chaminda Vaas... immense. And then also because he was cruising to a triple century and New Zealand’s highest ever Test score but he declared 26 runs short because he wanted to leave enough time in the match to bowl them a couple times for the win. Not that we did. Sri Lanka scored 483 in response (Hashan Tillakaratne with 144) and it petered out to a draw. Although Flem did score an unbeaten 69 (noice) in the second innings and his aggregate of 343 runs in a Test remains a New Zealand record. He spent all but 44 overs in the field/at the crease that match.
And this knock in South Africa was equally as good. He and James Franklin put on 256 for the eighth wicket on the way to 535/8dec. He definitely wanted the triple hundy that time, batting for 576 minutes before chopping one on. But, man, this was free flowing Flem at his best. South Africa then scored 512 in their own first innings though and it was another draw.
And, yeah, let’s chuck this one in too, why not. 105 at the WACA against Australia. Four different kiwis tonned up in that innings. Lou Vincent, Nathan Astle, and Adam Parore also joining him (we drew that one too, naturally). I had a poster oft this feat when I was a kid, I might see if I can dig it out. Came from the series programme when we came back home to face England a few months later and Nathan Astle did something special.
And while I’ve got ya here, go listen to Fiona Apple’s new album. It’s powerful and weird and vulnerable and honest and catchy and poetic and remarkable.
Reading Menu
Enjoying The Kiwi Sporting Excellence Of Jeetan Patel (Cricket)
Diary Of An Aotearoa Warriors Fan: Small Sample of New Pathways (NRL)
What Ever Happened To The U20 All Whites Lads From The 2015 World Cup (Football)
Revisiting The (Kinda Rubbish) 2013 NBA Draft And Learning A Few Lessons In The Process (NBA)