The Angry Troll Awakes

John Parker must have really hated the last couple of years.  A comparatively successful New Zealand cricket team, world partnership records in test matches; all cumulating in a successful co-hosting of the World Cup.

What would have made that painful is that this followed his 77 bullet-point ramble circulated amongst a collection of former players in April 2013 calling for a complete overturning of the Board to be replaced by … a collection of former players.

That report contained a series of pretty snide attacks on the credibility of McCullum and Hesson, and was hastily withdrawn when the threat of libel action was brought up.  Suddenly the line at the end of the e-mail circulated amongst this group saying “Thanks for the support – all good fun” looked a bit silly.

The genesis for this duplicitous campaign was the appointment of McCullum as New Zealand captain.  That was an action that was poorly handled, but one that nobody, surely, could say was the wrong decision.

For the two years since that Parker had become conspicuously silent.  Until today, when like a sleeping troll prodded with a stick, he is at it again.

A lot of it is a regurgitation of what Edgar has been saying over the last week, but there are some gems in there.

“We [The Group] took on the chin the distraction of the McCullum issues, which were orchestrated to take the focus off the board’s deficiencies”

That is brilliant.  It was a high-profile, co-ordinated campaign, that only stopped when he was asked to substantiate the accusations.  And to refer to it as a distraction is a pretty jaw-dropping rewriting of history.  In fact, even when apologising he made it clear it was a lot about McCullum

“We knew going to court would have destroyed New Zealand Cricket and many reputations”

Except that was the whole point of it.  He then highlights Edgar being a nice guy, in an attempt to turn it into a popularity contest, where the winner would be inevitable.  He even suggests him becoming CEO.

The next potshot is not a random one.

“.. a review of New Zealand Cricket’s governance as similar examples of mediocre administration and governance within cricket has unfortunately spread right down to District Association level.”

Some context here.  Last week Parker and the Board of the Waikato Valley Cricket Association parted ways after a falling out; a position he gained via a coin toss.  There will be two sides to that story too, but it always seems to be someone else’s fault.  And they are left to pick up the pieces.

He repeats Edgar’s phrase from last week of too much back-slapping at NZC.  Positive feedback is to be discouraged; looks like they have been chatting away with Glenn Turner then.

Not once does he acknowledge that a new role has been created, or that the duties of the person occupying this role are greater than ever before, and that this has to be progress..

There is a theory that these ex-players, all from a similar vintage, actually do not have a huge issue with NZ Cricket; rather they are jealous of the modern players in general, and their bank balances specifically.  That is a big call, but interviews like this give it some fuel.