Posts by Ben Chapman
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During my long-abandoned US PhD study, I did a class called 'Nuclear Film'. It was amazing how many of those scifi classics reflected apocalyptic Cold War anxieties. If it wasn't 'OMG Teh Commies Will Brainwash You' (Invasion of the Body Snatchers), it was 'OMG Teh Radiation Will Mutate Things and We Will All Die' (Them!). Sometimes a combination of the two.
I read a great critique of Plan 9 from Outer Space that suggested the awfulness of the movie was just a ploy to sneak its subversive message past the censors. And you do have to wonder how it is that a movie so incompetent in so many ways could actually have a coherent point:
**Jeff Trent:** So what if we do develop this Solanite bomb? We'd be even a stronger nation than now.
Eros: [with disgust] Stronger. You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
Jeff Trent: That's all I'm taking from you!
[pistol-whips Eros upside the head] -
If we're being totally honest, since the retirement of Crowe, NZ has only had three genuinely world class players- Bond, Vettori and Cairns.
No specialist batsman, which probably makes all the difference.
Three world-class players in 10 odd years might not sound that many, but – without doing any analysis – I reckon most other teams haven't been that much more lucky. Also, since Crowe's retirement, I don't think we've done that badly. We've been nowhere near our eighties' peak, but we have recovered from our nineties' depression. We've slumped significantly in the last few years, but I reckon that has more to do with the sub-world-class players we've lost in that time.
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I love our team, I love NZ cricket and I love test matches. I just wish we'd stop putting dashers like Ryder and McCullum in test matches where you need real batsmen. It does them no credit and it really doesn't help us compete.
We've been too deeply affected by Australia's example.
I reckon both Ryder and McCullum are great test players (or will be in Ryder's case). They have been poorly managed in tests though. McCullum is so great batting down the order it is a real shame to see him wasted in the top order. Ryder might also benefit from moving down a place. He's obviously a top order player, but with our opening partnership failing so consistently, he's having to be a proxy opener, which is not a style that will suit him.
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I call the mentality 'Cricket Goth'. You float about full of woe, all emo-like, and every now and then something wonderful happens when you aren't expecting it.
'Cricket Goth' is a great description of tragic cricket tragics.
I found myself strangely elated after the weekend's game. Like I had come to enjoy the pain.