Two men born in New Zealand have been in the headlines recently. For one of them, Ben Stokes, born in Christchurch, the headline is his natural habitat. The other, Kane Williamson, born in Tauranga, announced his retirement in the middle of a Test series against an England side originally led by Stokes.

Williamson is one of the nicest players to have held a cricket bat, a modern icon, and possibly the greatest batter from his country. Yet, you do not retire in the middle of a series without upsetting team plans, throwing less experienced players into the cauldron, and causing some chaos. Head coach Rob Walter put it as delicately as possible: “You don’t lose Kane Williamson off the team sheet and get stronger.”

Still, even he bought into the prevailing talk of altruism and magnanimity saying, “That’s the person that he is, and just [shows] the regard that he holds the team in to not just carry on but actually to hand the opportunity to someone else who would take his place and fill a more........

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