The Bare Margins

The definitive autobiography of one of cricket's greatest batsmen of his generation, and New Zealand's all-time leading run scorer. A generational batsman and captain, Kane Williamson sits in the pantheon of cricketing greats. Ending his career with a Test average of 54.06 and 19,346 international runs, including 48 centuries, he led New Zealand in all three formats of the game from 2016 to 2024, where the team made two World Cup finals and won the inaugural World Test Championship in 2021. Williamson is New Zealand’s highest run-scorer of all time but his earliest experiences in the Black Caps environment were fraught and inconsistent. He describes the team as being like a herd of antelope hunted by lions: you didn’t have to be the fastest in the team, as long as you weren’t the slowest. In The Bare Margins, Williamson talks about the fine lines between success and failure in sport, the influence of Brendon McCullum and the genesis of Bazball, and how the shift in culture from an individual to a team-first environment took an underdog side to number one in the world. He also talks openly about his time as captain, his philosophy and approach to batting, and the reasons for his sudden retirement during a Test series with England in 2026. The Bare Margins is not just Kane’s story, it is must-have sports autobiography about leadership, culture and the mindset of a cricketing legend.