Kane Williamson: The Nice Guy Who Finished Second

He is hard and sweet in the right measure. And, Kane Williamson just restored the world’s belief in the gentleman’s game

- Reuben Joe Joseph

Long before Kane Stuart Williamson became the darling of the cricketing world, long before the fateful World Cup final, Jofra Archer had called it. “Nice guys finish 2nd,” the English pacer had tweeted in 2013. Among all of Archer’s old tweets that the twitterati were able to dig out and give context to at this World Cup, none seemed more fitting. The 28-year-old nice guy from the coastal city of Tarangua had to settle for the second place.

Williamson was born in 1990, minutes before his twin brother, Logan, to a family that loved sports. His father was a club cricket player, his mother played basketball at the university level and his three elder sisters played volleyball at different levels. Little is known about Logan, who was into sports but chose to be an accountant.

The boys played rugby, volleyball, basketball and football and quietly excelled in all of them. Kane’s childhood coaches remember his ability to amass runs at will while showing respect for the game and for opponents. Josh Syms, his school coach, once told a newspaper: “He had a thirst to be phenomenal, but not at anyone else’s expense. It was more ‘This is what I love, this is what I’m good at, so I’m going to do that’.” Another coach said that the boy would always compete with himself, not others.