Folks from Aotearoa are rather insecure about how other countries view us kiwis. We pride ourselves on our high standards in being a lovely bloke or wahine, we do the mahi and we'll fit into any team without much ego. This is at the root of Aotearoa's sporting teams and has been highly evident in the Blackcaps as outlined in many yarns prior to the Test Championship Final about how the Blackcaps re-jigged their identity.

The Blackcaps dwelled on how they were trying to play cricket like other nations. Success and comfort came as the Blackcaps embraced who they are as kiwis, who and what they represent (Aotearoa). Turns out that being yourself is crucial in success. For kiwis being yourself in this weird world full of celebrity, ego-flexing and cash-guzzling will go a long way towards being respected.

There are good and bad wrinkles of kiwi insecurity. This is about the Blackcaps and New Zealand Cricket though and how Aotearoa cricket went from general nothing-ness to being the world's second favourite team. That change came with intention, it was manifested through mahi and right now, Aotearoa cricket is getting a taste of the opposite in being extravagantly hated in a section of Earth.

Kiwis are pretty good at empathy - we often take on the woes of someone else to our own detriment. Let's put ourselves in the cricketing boots of Pakistan, a nation that like most nations on Earth has far more trauma built up over a far greater period than Aotearoa. Pakistan exists in a volatile area of Earth, where wars and niggle have existed for centuries, let alone what Pakistan has endured in the last few decades.

From my cozy abode in Aotearoa, I reckon Pakistan prides itself on being different to nations around it. Boil that down to recent events and Pakistan would take immense pride in being different to Afghanistan. Pakistan has gone to great lengths to use sport to reinvigorate how folks around the world perceive Pakistan and not much in international cricket gives me the warm fuzzies like seeing cricket played in Pakistan. What Aotearoa did in pulling out of their tour of Pakistan, brought all that trauma to the forefront just as Pakistan was escaping issues of perception.

Kiwis are pretty relaxed in how we view sport. We all know its importance in building community and growth as a human, although sport isn't viewed above whanau for example. In other nations, sport is religion and sport is their gateway to the world. Sport is not an avenue to start hating folks or hating a nation which has made the reaction from Pakistan a bit weird, we can however embrace empathy to the plight of Pakistan.

Which brings us to NZC. Here at the Niche Cache we keep things a full steak and cheese, so when NZC serve up their weirdness we take care in outlining this weird shit. The main issue that arises when pondering the NZC situation is how they yanked this tour out at the last moment, despite there being obvious issues behind the scenes.

This yarn outlined how the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade 'warned NZC not to tour' and chief decision-maker David White was quoted in saying "We were advised not to go".

Unfortunately athletes get more death threats than sporting plebs would imagine, thus making death threats via social media a kinda weak reason to not tour. However, when death threats are packaged alongside a warning not to tour then we have a decent reason not to tour. Instead, NZC trucked along as if everything was fine and didn't seem to be overly transparent with their Pakistan comrades. NZC would have had lots of chances to pull out of this tour and decided that right before kick-off would be the spot.

This is a battle of perception. The emotions from Pakistan stems from their mahi in changing the perception of Pakistan. Despite being advised not to tour and various threats coming in, NZC yanked the tour at the last moment and it's easy to see how that can be perceived as ridiculous, lacking self-awareness and disrespectful.

As for cricketing matters, the weird nature of this elongated tour means that nothing is really lost for the Blackcaps. Only five players who are in the T20 World Cup squad were going to play in the five-game T20I series vs Pakistan (Ish Sodhi, Todd Astle, Martin Guptill, Daryl Mitchell, Mark Chapman) while the rest of the World Cup squad is already in the United Arab Emirates playing Indian Premier league.

For the 'B Squad' who played in Bangladesh and were to play ODIs vs Pakistan, they miss out on some development opportunities in playing cricket outside Aotearoa. That's actually low key important considering many kiwi cricketers have built their records based upon all the cricket in Aotearoa without doing anything overseas. The main goal here though is winning a T20 World Cup and those five players who would have had their T20 prep in Pakistan, will be doing their prep mahi in UAE.

There is a hearty IPL contingent that I'm tracking and the only thing worse here would be if the IPL was actually in India - Pakistan's rival bordering on enemy.

NZC's schedule ensured that there was minimal crossover from the Bangladesh and Pakistan series to T20 World Cup, now that crossover is zero. While none of us want to see our athletes put in dangerous situations, NZC could have played this battle of perception much better. Warnings were present, threats were present and NZC carried on as if everything was honki-dory, only to leave Pakistan reeling.

Now for the intriguing part. The Blackcaps have established mana in the world of cricket, especially under the leadership of Kane Williamson and that's despite whatever shenanigans NZC dish up. Now we will see how NZC goes about mending bridges and what NZC is willing to do to ensure a hearty working relationship can be re-established with Pakistan. We all know matua Williamson and his lads will share light and positivity with Pakistan, but this is about how NZC goes about their mahi.

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