John Cushen with Brendon McCullum. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
Hitting the mark
"Not a bad effort, but Anderson’s feat not all it seems", screamed the headline back in August 2020.
England great James Anderson had just became the first seamer to claim 600 wickets and Notes from Slip decided it was the perfect time to pen a critical column.
It was the usual listicle featuring a catalogue of great bowlers who I argued were vastly superior.
This is painful to admit but I might have been wrong ... again.
The guy is closing in on 700 test wickets and this week grabbed the top spot in the ICC men’s test player rankings for the sixth time in his career.
He took seven wickets in the first test against New Zealand in Mount Maunganui to help England win by 267 runs. He is 40, for crying out loud. He should be fat and watching from the couch.
His long-term bowling partner, Stuart Broad, did a lot of damage as well with four for 49 in the second innings.
They surpassed Australian pair Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath as the most successful test bowling combination in the history of the game.
They have teamed up to take more than 1000 wickets.
Crease bound
Regular correspondent John Stinson wrote in to say he got "steamed up" with the Blacks Caps’ capitulation in the first test against England as well.
But he had a bigger issue with the White Ferns’ efforts at the T20 World Cup.
"This is the second consecutive time where the White Ferns have failed to advance beyond the [round-robin] stages of a World Cup tournament despite having what on paper seemed to be a good well-balanced side.
"Inept batting, namely an inability to ‘play straight’ early on, has been the principal problem all along.
Those two latest efforts against Australia and South Africa were just plain awful.
"Just for the record, I predict England to upset Australia in the final."
Clubbing it
Another regular Notes From Slip contributor, John Cushen, was in Tauranga last week for the first test against England, and he caught up with his former pupil — England coach Brendon McCullum.
Cushen taught McCullum at King’s High School and also coached him for five years.
He had the opportunity to present McCullum with a few tokens: Brendon’s numbered First XI cap, the King’s Wall of Fame citation and an inscribed gold watch.
"Thanks so much for all you do for King’s High School. England’s gain is New Zealand’s loss," Cushen wrote in a social media post.
The declaration
Just in case you read a certain column earlier this week, I am not taking deliveries of clothes needing ironing. I fully expect the Black Caps will bounce back in Wellington today.
