Hardy few see domestic cricket's pinnacle

KIRK HARGREAVES/The Press

UNDER CONTROL: Security guards certainly didn't have crowd control issues in the State Championship final between Central Districts and Auckland at Lincoln.

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You shudder to think what might happen if cricket's State Championship final made it all the way to Good Friday.

Central Districts' opening day collapse, in the face of some steady Auckland bowling, may mean the five-day domestic season finale does not reach its scheduled denouement. And what a relief that would be.

You see, highly visible though they may be, the security staff at Bert Sutcliffe Oval are only on deck until Thursday.

"We expect the first day to be pretty slow. We're just here to make sure no-one gets too drunk and out of hand," said one of their number, who preferred to be identified as "Macca."

"Wednesday afternoon could be pretty interesting. We're expecting a few drunk people then, what with the end of the game the next day."

Except Friday is the last day.

"Is it? No-one's said anything to us about Friday."

Oh dear. Because if any crowd is going to cause strife at a cricket match, then it was yesterday morning's one.

Take out the teams and their support staff, folks from New Zealand Cricket (NZC), caterers, assorted Sky camera people, commentators, scorers, groundstaff, photographers and we had about eight fair dinkum spectators on hand to witness the two best first-class associations in the country do battle.

They weren't turning out mug elevens, either. Round-robin victors Auckland, who only need a draw from this match to claim the title, boasted former Black Caps Richard Jones, Daryl Tuffey and Gareth Hopkins in their line-up.

On the other side, internationals Jacob Oram, Jamie How, Mathew Sinclair, Michael Mason, Ewen Thompson and Brendon Diamanti were playing for CD.

But, as Canterbury cricket identity Tony Feeley said as he updated the electronic scoring system, by staging the final in Canterbury, NZC was only ever going to get Canterbury people along to watch the match. And with Canterbury not playing, even they weren't going to come.

That wasn't quite true, with a couple of the QE II Park regulars making an appearance. One wandered about with his customary striped cushion, while the other sat in a deck chair in his usual spot adjacent to the sightscreen. In terms of proceedings on the paddock, CD's search for an outright win didn't begin well.

Peter Ingram's early assault aside, most of their batsmen struggled as the innings limped to 169 for eight when bad light stopped play.

The light had been poor all day but, needing to force the play, CD continued on in gloomy conditions. All the Auckland bowlers were tidy, but it was Lance Shaw who caused consistent problems and he deserved his haul of five for 59.

After just 46 of the scheduled 90 overs of play were played yesterday, it will be interesting to see how many of the hardy eight spectators return today.

- © Fairfax NZ News