Give me a break: Former New Zealand players slam Daryl Mitchell’s ‘we’re not defined by the outcomes’ comment after loss to AUS
Former New Zealand players Jeremy Coney and Ian Smith criticized Kiwi player Daryl Mitchell’s comments where he said that the Black Caps weren’t defined by outcomes after they lost to Australia in the second Test of the ongoing series.
“For us, we’ve always said as Blackcaps, we’re not defined by the outcomes, we’re defined by how we play cricket and hopefully how we inspire our country to play the game,” Mitchell had said to SEN Cricket.
Taking umbrage to the fact, Coney said to SEN, “I absolutely support the sentiment of it about the fact that you’re an international sportsman and that you train as hard as you can. You train your own individual skills and whatever that might be, that doesn’t just mean batting or bowling, it means where you are in the field, what you’re going to do and what’s the requirement of the position. You don’t want to let your teammates down … all those kinds of things, you do in order to, what? To lose? Give me a break. (You do it) to win. Winning is actually the key to it all.”
“You don’t have to be a sportsman for that, either. Any position that you do, you have to do it well in order to remain doing it for a start. If you do it poorly, you’re out. So don’t tell me that outcomes have got nothing to do with international sport. We kind of get what he’s meaning. But actually, young kids will follow the New Zealand side when they win. I promise you that Darryl, they’ll stick with you,” he added.
Smith said that he can’t believe that he just heard a New Zealand cricketer say that they were not defined by the outcomes of a Test match against Australia.
“I’m going to take two or three deep breaths here and then still say, I don’t believe I just heard a New Zealand cricketer say ‘We’re not defined by the outcomes’, of a Test match against Australia. If we were to ask Darryl Mitchell, had they got up and won that Test, asked them the very same question,” he said.