Smile because it happened

By Harbour Heather

The last time you watched Kane Williamson bat, did you know it was the last time you’d watch Kane Williamson bat?

I’m not talking the recent Lord’s test, because some say (boosted by hindsight) that they knew the end was nigh. Evidently, the man himself did.

No, I’m talking on a grass bank somewhere around the country, watching one of his trademark calm, chanceless innings with textbook cuts, drives and pulls.

Because I kinda did. I remember watching him score a first-innings century against South Africa at Bay Oval on 4 February 2024 and thinking “I’m not sure how many more of these I’ll get to see in person.”

I’m a purist. Test cricket is my favourite form of my favourite sport, and Kane is the best New Zealand batter I’ve ever seen with my own eyes. To me, a long Kane Williamson innings was the cricketing Sistine Chapel coming to life.

I knew we were closer to the end than the beginning. I knew he would still have some great innings left in him, but I didn’t know how many I’d see live. So I sat in the sun and marinated in the bittersweet glow of knowing I was seeing my favourite thing in cricket, but that I wouldn’t have many more opportunities to do so.

I didn’t stay for the entire test match, but if I had, I wouldn’t have to wait long for another opportunity. Sure, it may have been against a third string South African side, but he racked up 118 in the first innings and 109 in the second.

Around that time, I tweeted that we were living in the good times and needed to stop and take it all in, because we needed to recognise what we had. We’d miss it when it was gone. We might not see the likes of it again for a long, long time. I’ve even blogged about it in 2023, when I bravely, publicly admitted that he might’ve overtaken my first cricketing love, Nathan Astle.

And now, that time has arrived. We’re working through the five stages of sporting retirement grief, and meditating over the melancholic prose of “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”

I didn’t think it would end so abruptly at 10.30pm on a Friday night (throwing sports media for a loop – so undeniably, understatedly Kane), but we could all see the ship he steadied for so long waiting on the departure dock.

I don’t think New Zealand Cricket were quite expecting this either, not if last week’s home summer schedule is anything to go by. Summer 26/27 will finish with two tests against Sri Lanka – the first in Kane’s backyard of Bay Oval, and the second at the main home of Northern Districts, Seddon Park.

When I saw this, I thought it screamed Kane Farewell Tour and immediately put the dates in my calendar with the intention of being there.

So what happens now? What do fans do with all the emotion this announcement has generated if we can’t send him out with an appropriately lengthy standing ovation at his home ground, watching him reluctantly raise his bat as he walks off into the sunset?

For many, it’s been social media posts. From once-teenaged English net bowlers to Uganda Cricket, seemingly everyone involved in this sport has wanted to honour him as a player and a person. He’s rightly being hailed as one of the best batters of the modern era, but what warms my fangirl heart is the number of posts celebrating him as a leading gentleman of the gentleman’s game.

That’s what made Kane extra special. Whether he was lifting the World Test Championship mace or coming to terms with England being awarded the 2019 Cricket World Cup in gut-wrenching circumstances, his keel remained even. He never got too high, never too low, never too sweaty. He played the game the right way, endeared opposing players, fans and commentators, and where Kane went emotionally, the team followed.

He gave long-suffering BlackCaps fans the chance to see a New Zealander set up residence as one of the “Big Four” batsman of world cricket. If only the BlackCaps had a test schedule which matched India, Australia and England, he’d have really given Kohli, Smith and Root a run for their money.

I feel selfishly sorry for us as BlackCaps fans that we don’t get to experience one more Summer of Kane, but Kane Williamson doesn’t owe us anything. Not after leading the charge through the most successful era of New Zealand men’s cricket, whether that was as captain or simply just carrying the weight of a cricket nation on his shoulders.

Happy retirement, you humble World Test Champion. I cannot wait to see you turn down a King’s Honour for Services to Cricket.

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