The good team that’s almost invisible
Three years ago Clare Curran, then the minister of broadcasting, intimated to me that one day, in a golden socialist future, we might actually be able to watch our national sports free-toair TV again. Then Curranwas out of a job and mugs like you and me were being price gouged even more if we wanted to watch both the All Blacks and Black Caps on television.
New Zealand Cricket’s selling of broadcast rights to Spark Sport should be considered a national scandal. The numbers tell us that cricket is dying in our schools, and yet the governing body has opted to take a bit more coin at the expense of audience figures.
How many cricket fans would have seen New Zealand demolish the West Indies last week? How many will see Kane Williamson’s men take on the former greats of the Caribbean at Wellington this weekend? And if we did shell out the money, there was no guarantee that the picture wouldn’t keep lagging. At times, it can be like watching stop motion animation.
If I want to watch both rugby and cricket in these unenlightened times, Sky’s package (without counting broadband costs) is $58 per month and Spark $24 amonth. What low income family can afford that? And yet we might just be watching – or not watching, in the case of the majority – the finest New Zealand cricket test team in history.
There can surely be no argument now that Kane Williamson is this country’s finest batsman. Even the West Indies captain was imploring his men to bat more like Williamson.
And there is also a very strong case to be made for the view that this is now New Zealand’s strongest-ever test bowling attack. It lacks a top class spinner and can struggle overseas, but the arrival of Kyle Jamieson means there is now no let-up for opposing teams. No longer do they think of seeing off the opening pair and then accumulating runs.
Half the schoolkids in this country should be relishing the thought of getting out into their backyard and telling their mates as they slash a tennis ball into the garage door: ‘‘Williamson takes guard, one short of his century, and there it is, punched through the covers off the back foot, the crowd are standing to pay tribute to New Zealand’s remarkable captain’’.
Instead, there is virtual silence on the fantasy airwaves because most of the youngsters in this country will never get to see the real thing. I cruelly asked my brother-in-law the other day what he would choose, if forced to pick between the festive trifle or a game of Christmas Day backyard cricket.
He said: ‘‘That’s not fair. It’s like asking me to choose which of my two children I would throw out of the lifeboat.’’
Caleb cares that deeply about the game, but I don’t for one moment think this Labour Party does.
How ridiculous it is that Grant Robertson is the sports minister. How can he possibly have the time to care for our national games when he is also the deputy prime minister, the minister for finance, for infrastructure and for racing?
I can imagine a sketch where Robertson just sits in a room and argues with himself. But then maybe no one else in the Labour Party wanted the job. Maybe they are all armchair-bound apparatchiks who think a deep cover is something you chuck over the back of a sofa.
The other day a reader called Bridget Hargreaves wrote a letter to Stuff under the title ‘Just not cricket’.
Bridget pleaded: ‘‘The pain of an appalling Wellington spring could have been assuaged by being able to watch a bit of T20 cricket on the couch. But no! NZ Cricket has sold the television rights to Spark Sport, which means a number of technical hoops have to be jumped through to get coverage. I worry about the old folks in rest homes. My grandmother used to love watching cricket in her retirement village. And it’s not even on Radio Sport any more.
‘‘Bring the cricket back to the people.’’
Bridget was not entirely correct. The early T20 games were being shown on free-to-air, although not evenmy technically savvy son was aware of that. And the radio coverage may have moved, but it is still eminently listenable. However, many of us will agree with Bridget’s sentiment. The peoplewho love New Zealand cricket have been sold out.
Back in 2017 Curran said to me Labour was not prepared to ‘‘risk the viability of our sporting codes by turning everything upside down’’. What she appeared to be sayingwas Labour would continue to allow free rein to the capitalist market so that the governing body of cricket in this country could funnel the money back into the wages of the elite players, while the game at schoolboy level and club level continued to wither.
The only voice against this in the last government was Winston Peters, whose party sought to amend the Broadcasting Act in order to bring more sport back onto free-to-air. He cited the case of Australia and numerous other countrieswhich had multiple free-to-air events and argued that such amove would contribute to a healthy and cohesive society.
But Peters is no longer in Parliament, yet alone government, so cricket will continue to die in this country. At the start of the millennium nearly 18,000 schoolboys and girlswere playing cricket. The last census showed that the number had dropped below 10,000, lower even than badminton.
I watch this current West Indies team with a tear in my eye. Their bowling attack would not even havemade the third team of the great sides of the 70s and 80s. The game is dying in the islands. Once upon a time if you spoke cricket, then you were a friend in any West Indies bar. Now you are just aweirdo.
And I can see the same thing happening in New Zealand. Make the most of this wonderful team of Kane Williamson’s, because this is the end of the golden summer. Soon New Zealand won’t be good enough to get a game against East Punjab seconds and the joke will run – ‘‘imagine if we had had to play the whole of Punjab’’.
‘‘How can [Grant Robertson] possibly have the time to care for our national games when he is also the deputy prime minister, the minister for finance, for infrastructure and for racing?’’