NZ men’s cricket skipper Daniel Vettori seems to have lost his grip on reality a touch. In media remarks following NZ’s 2-1 test series loss to England, and the retirement of Kiwi batsman Stephen Fleming, Vettori has referred to players as “product”.
Ross Taylor is apparently “a great product for a number of years for New Zealand cricket”, while new fast bowler Tim Southee is a “polished product” (which Vettori then contradicts later, claiming Southee is “unpolished”… maybe someone applied a bit of sandpaper to rough him up again?)
Following the disturbing meat market that was the Indian IPL cricket players auction (bidding for players to join IPL Twenty20 teams), it is disquieting that a senior NZ cricket player should talk of human beings as ‘product’. It follows former skipper Fleming’s talk of ‘entertaining’ the fans rather than ‘playing the game’, and reveals the gradual shift that business has had on sport. May it end soon…
It was nice that Vettori could talk of ‘polished’ NZ performances though 
Tags: cricket, NZ, Stephen Fleming, Daniel Vettori, Ross Taylor, Tim Southee
