Batting Star Kane Williamson Tipped as Best of All Time

Yorkshire batsman New Zealander Kane Williamson – “a bona fide ‘star’ as opposed to one of the self-generated variety – is not your average character or your average cricketer.

Tauranga-born Williamson, who can block the life out of the ball as well as belt it, depending on the match situation, is uncommonly level-headed for someone who, at the tender age of 24, has already acquired numerous plaudits.

More followed after Williamson’s Test-best 242 not out against Sri Lanka in early January, which inspired a remarkable back-from-the-dead win in the second Test at Wellington.

Since October 2013, Williamson has scored 1,649 Test runs in 25 innings at an average of 74.95 with six centuries – three of which have surpassed 150.

Small wonder that Black Caps captain Brendan McCullum was moved to state after Williamson’s tour de force in Wellington that he could become New Zealand’s best batsman of all time.

“It’s hard to put this on his shoulders while the guy is so young, but I firmly believe Kane could go down as New Zealand’s greatest ever batter,” McCullum said.

McCullum – no stranger to accolades himself – concluded with this touching tribute… “He [Kane] was batting in my backyard the other day against my boy. I said to my boy, ‘In 10 years’ time, you’re going to appreciate how good this experience was’.”

Whether the modest Williamson appreciates that he is a “star” is, of course, a different matter.

Williamson plays for Northern Districts and made his first-class debut in December 2007. In 2013, Williamson signed for Yorkshire.

Original article by The Yorkshire Post, January 10, 2015.

Photo by PA.