One year ago today it all turned to custard, what I called the beginning of nothing, the day covid put the kibosh on world sport.

Everything was getting postponed starting with the  NBA quickly followed by leagues and tournies all around the planet. 

Friday night the Black Caps played Ozzie in Sydney with the then unusual sight of players retrieving their own 6's hit into the stands.

I say "then" because last Friday in Wellington it was the same. Again.

Sobering stuff to think about a year later when you think that we were also, with SRA, the first country in the world to re-welcome crowds back into stadiums. And that was way before anyone else could even consider one.

Yet here we are in NZ, 12 months later, and still not fully confident of  being completely back to normal anytime soon. Thirteen weeks it was without any live sport anywhere.

The NRL was the first comp to resume on the back of the incredibly determined Peter V'landys, the patron saint of all sports fans, a man who moved mountains to achieve what everyone thought was actually impossible. And sport survived.

As contrived as it's appeared to be at times, as empty as it often appears without spectators present, sport did survive. And importantly so too because live sport being played seems to be one of the key barometers in measuring how successful a country is coping with covid - the day people go back to the games again  meaning things are pretty much almost ok.

A year ago today the whole world changed. One year later let's all be thankful things are already so much better.