The decline of domestic cricket
My favorite every Shell Cup Final (not something everybody has a list of, admittedly) is 1993 - Canterbury v Otago. The holders against a team of young bucks. Canterbury had seven internationals, with three more (Howell, Astle and Fleming) capped soon after. Otago had a bunch of experienced pros, but only three stars – skipper Kenny Rutherford in sublime form, Jeff Wilson and Dion Nash, fuelled with testosterone and talent.
I remember three things about the game. This young bloke Astle tonking 28 not out at the end of the innings to give the Cantabs a bit of breathing space, Rutherford walking out to bat without a helmet much to Chris Cairns's chagrin (you could almost feel the fury from eighty yards), and this titanic struggle between Nash and Chris Cairns which seemed more than a little like territorial pissing.
I also remember that Carisbrook was packed – not packed like the Northern Line at 7.45am, but very well attended. There was a real hubbub about the place – and this was in January when all the students were away. (I’ve just checked the Alamanac – 13,000 were there). It was not, by any stretch, as good as the Final of 1992, but I missed that epic, with its astonishing catches, hitting and drama. But it was nevertheless a very good Final.
Since then I haven’t been to a vast amount of domestic cricket – a few one-dayers here and there. In 2005 I was working from home, but lived so close to the Basin Reserve that my portable phone was just about in range. I spent a few afternoons watching State Championship matches with papers spread about on the bank. There were just a few more people on the buses heading to Island Bay than in the crowd, to be honest.
And then my mate invited me to a 20/20 match, and I duly went along, and it was an enjoyable hour-long romp on a Friday that filled the time between work drinks and a party in Mt Vic. McGlashan for Northern Districts looked superb and I thought he’d make the Black Caps in the near future, and that’s all I remember. There was a modest crowd.
No doubt there will be a few people through the turnstiles as the summer continues – kids wanting hotdogs and autographs, retired people who will watch and compare today’s players with their memories of Bert Sutcliffe and John Reid. There will be a few students, a few people on leave. There will also be people passionate about cricket, who wouldn’t ever miss a game within a Scud missile range of their home. But to get 13,000 to a domestic match? The weather would have to be exceptional, the team full of Black Caps, the calendar empty of other attractions. It will surely never happen again.
I do wonder why domestic cricket has declined. Maybe it was just on a honeymoon in 1993, the year after the World Cup heroics – with Super 10,12,14 not beginning to encroach on pre-season, and television defiantly terrestrial. There was less "product" back in 1993, not just from competing sports, but from cricket itself – no 20/20, only five rounds of Shell Cup, rationed cricket on television.
Three things, I believe, have had an impact: the first is obviously television. New Zealand is among the highest TV watchers in the world, and for the ordinary bloke in Caversham, a cricket dilettante who might wander down to the Brook in ordinary circumstances in 1993 might prefer to stay at home in 2009 and watch a movie on Sky, or the A1 GP qualifying, or some tissue-strength documentary like When Monks Go Bad.
A second thing is surely scheduling by NZ Cricket. Ever since the Boxing Day test was surgically removed from the Basin, I have been confused about the wisdom of scheduling the three domestic competitions and touring teams. The philosophy around the Shield is obviously to play at or near holiday destinations over summer and make Black Caps available as crowd magnets. This is understandable – but the State Shield now lasts over a month, the Final is lost in the static, momentum hiccups (only four games played between December 21 and January 4?). If the disastrous World Cup gave us anything it was that you cannot have huge gaps in a tournament’s schedule. Then there is the international schedule, and I needn’t say anything here – I’ll leave that to Matt Hayden, great batsman and potentially great pundit. Here he is on the front foot about Baz – “It's a real indictment on their cricket that you can have one of the elite players in world cricket not being able to play the volume of cricket with the earning capacity that most international athletes can expect.”
Lastly one has to look at who is playing State Shield and Championship cricket. Our most exciting players – Ryder, McCullum, Southee, Taylor – have played just 12 matches between them this summer. Vettori has yet to perform for ND this season. Internationals are making just brief cameos in domestic cricket. Can you imagine a dad driving his kid 30km just to get the autograph of Brandon Hiini or Hamish Rutherford or Robbie Schaw? Maybe someday. But not in 2009.
Brendon McCullum then played for NSW this weekend. This is a good thing for Baz, but a very bad thing for Otago, and for New Zealand cricket. It threatens a situation in which we are a feeder club for Australia, and India, and England, and where the chance for a Kiwi kid to see a Black Cap play will be a rare luxury.
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I feel you are right in that N.Z. television watching is more cherished than watching live sport. There is also the fact that now it appears that each event has to be built up with hype and "entertainment" in order to attract the younger watcher in the 18-24 group. This has left the former older spectator no longer that bothered, they just wanted to see the game unfold. About 3 years ago I went down to Hagley Park where an Auckland/Canterbury (Shield) game was being played before what I counted to be 12 independent spectators. I can remember when the gate would swing open for free at 5.30 for the last half hour at Lancaster Park and hordes of workers would swept into the ground just to watch this last bit. I personally gave up (from going every day in the 60's) in the 90's when I was no longer allowed to take in a chilly bin with a cold bottle of drink and some food. And I am not even going to mention the MUSIC. (Noise)
<i>“It’s a real indictment on their cricket that you can have one of the elite players in world cricket not being able to play the volume of cricket with the earning capacity that most international athletes can expect.”</i>
In the context of interest in domestic cricket, I don't think McCullum's paycheck is a critical issue. Surely doubling the amount of internationals McCullum plays won't come close to matching what he gets through the IPL and hence won't entice him to turn out for Otago over NSW.
The new world order of cricket is barely beginning. Who is to say Hamish that it will be all one way traffic with NZ talent moving offshore to play?
With the money on offer these days overseas players will use NZ to try and gain a piece of it. As an example of this look at the Napiers/Massacre your anus/Crofts coming out here to play this summer. With NZ possibly gaining a spot in this years champions league surely that will only change as our provinces look to do "a NSW" and bring in world class players to help them get that pot of gold in India.
Hopefully that brings the crowds back as who wouldnt want to see our Black Caps playng plus say Watson, Morkel, Tait, Gibbs, Jayasuriya and Steyn (obviously only examples) playing as overseas to qualify for the Champions League
With T20 being the new cash cow, i think the Black Caps are being made to play as many of those games possible. Including this years. So in State Shield/Championship games it will be a rare occurence but T20 it wont be
Interesting line up in that final
Harris at 4, Germon batting above Fleming and Astle, Wilson opening and Nash batting at 4
Imagine what would have happened had Mallender decided to go for NZ citizinship...Hadlee and Mallender wouldn't have been a bad new ball partnership
I refuse to go to cricket at AMI even for an international, but will definetly head along to QE2's Village Green. It's a comfortable atmosphere, no parking hassles, you can bring in your chilly bins and there is some good cricket to watch. I caught the CD match there and witnessed some typical Bond magic, some great batting (some poor, How, Sinclair the usual suspects) and fielding for a tenner. Bring on ND Waitangi Day.
I remember as a kid being in Upper Moutere (near Nelson) and the family, the relatives and the neighbouring kids being packed into cars and hurried to Trafalgar Park when it was heard that Martin Crowe was batting. This was not 50 over cricket and the people involved were not cricket tragics.
I hope that kind of thing can still happen, because it certainly gave me a passion for the game.
I live in christchurch and cannot wait for the game on wednesday seeing as I have just got back down here. Caught a game in Nelson after xmas though and loved it - although I am the type who will go to anything within a bus trip. That and I havent been to qe2 cricket ground yet and heard it is a great ground.
Great piece. Bummed that we had no McCullum playing for Otago on Sunday. We just lost, and lost the chance to have a home semi.
It always seems poor that TV sports news rarely reports on domestic cricket. I have written whiny sentences to TV on this theme to no avail. It's like domestic cricket doesn't exist, but some dour NPC match between Manawatu and Counties can still be headline TV sports news in other parts of the year. And the weekly cheerleading for Man Utd and Chelsea, nothing on Spurs, mutter mutter etc.
Was anyone else listening to the conclusion of the final State Shield round on the radio t'other night? Fab. Something was riding on every game, and two of the games went down to the wire. Top players like Sinclair, McIntosh, Mills, Bond, Boult, Broom and Cumming all dominant. Runs and wickets all over the place. THREE centuries in the Northern v Canterbury game. Two of them were scored by the losing team. Astonishing. TV sports news guys: it would be good to have a few more cameras at the domestic games (you don't need the whole Sky caravan to make a story). Failing that, hell, use a rousing bit of radio or a still image with some bloody scores and some description. Do it justice and mix it up a bit. For some reason the reporting of sport is still incredibly formulaic and discriminating, and NZ domestic cricket is not quite convenient or interesting enough.
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I don't understand how ownership of cricket players works.
In a lot of sports, in order to change clubs or provinces, you have to transfer. Once you transfer, you can't just swap back a day later. It wouldn't be unusual to transfer between a club in one country for their season, to another hemisphere for their season, and then back again.
But how can McCullum transfer for one game? He already plays for a team in India, and Otago. Why does the ICC let players wander around different clubs depending on where the good games are?