Kris Shannon: The beginning of the end for Kane Williamson

THREE KEY FACTS

– Kane Williamson has decided to forgo a NZC central contract

– That decision will allow him to play franchise Twenty20 cricket overseas during New Zealand’s summer

– Despite World Test Championship success, a white ball format trophy has alluded New Zealand under his captaincy

Kris Shannon has been a sport journalist since 2011 and covers a variety of codes for the Herald.

OPINION

Kiwi fans need no excuse to curse the nations of England and Australia, but a good one arrived on Wednesday morning.

Ceding the captaincy isn’t the end of Kane Williamson’s international career and it will be little surprise to see the 33-year-old wearing black or teal or a combination of both at another World Cup.

But his decision to forgo a central contract with New Zealand Cricket does offer a moment to reflect on what might have been.

What if Mitchell Starc hadn’t rocked Brendon McCullum’s off stump in the first over of the 2015 ODI World Cup final?

What if Ben Stokes hadn’t deflected Martin Guptill’s throw to the boundary in the final over of the 2019 showpiece?

What if England didn’t demolish the Black Caps in the semifinals of the 2016 T20 World Cup, or Australia didn’t do likewise in the final of the 2021 tournament?

If one small thing — or a whole bunch of big things — had happened differently, then Williamson’s genius might have been granted the reward it deserved, even demanded.

Yes, we’ll always have the memory of Williamson and Ross Taylor walking from the Rose Bowl field after securing the inaugural World Test Championship, an image that will surely be cast in bronze and erected outside the Basin Reserve gates.

And yes, we’ll always have the once-unimaginable statistical resume that Williamson will continue to pad as routinely as he pads up, the runs and tons and awkward elevations of the bat.

But a World Cup title, something never achieved by a men’s cricket team from this country, something Williamson must have joined countless Kiwi kids in dreaming of winning while smacking a half-tracker from Dad over the neighbour’s fence?

We almost certainly won’t have that to remember from Williamson’s otherwise impeccable career.

In a just world, one in which Australia occasionally endured an off year, the longtime skipper’s individual gifts would have brought further collective glory. Instead, his hopes of lifting additional silverware seem as unlikely as Williamson missing a straight one.

There is, for some reason, another T20 World Cup in two years. But based on New Zealand’s performance this month in the West Indies, and based on Williamson’s recent record in the shortest form, it’s easy to envisage him watching from afar while a younger team make an early exit.

And there is, more reasonably, another ODI World Cup in three years. But, again, the Black Caps’ arrow is hardly pointing upwards, and Williamson’s body isn’t growing any less prone to injury.

An optimistic slant can be applied to this news. Indeed, NZC did its best to assure supporters that glimmers of sun still warmed the golden generation, that curtailing Williamson’s international career would also prolong Williamson’s international career.

But it’s difficult to avoid a somewhat nauseating conclusion: this is the beginning of the end for one of the greatest sportspeople New Zealand will produce.

If only Ben Stokes had become a farmer in Canterbury.