Cricket short-changing fans
Apiddling shower or two this summer will see New Zealand Cricket flooded with complaints. It won’t be the game’s governing body here at fault, however, for temperatures rising among fans when an errant drizzle inevitably yet unnecessarily disrupts a game between the Black Caps and India and short-changes the crowd.
Instead it’s cricket as a game that will be to blame.
And until everyone involved changes their approach to how rain stops play, cricket fans will continue to rightly feel ripped off.
At Seddon Park in Hamilton on Wednesday night, two brief showers reduced a Twenty20 match to a 16-overs-per-side contest.
The ground announcer praised the fans for ‘‘braving the rain’’ but it was hardly Lawrence Oates in the Antarctic couragelevels – there were a scattering of umbrellas raised and a handful of watchers headed to the trees for shelter during the second sprinkle, but Noah was never going to be required for a rescue.
The start of the match was delayed for 22 minutes, meaning the only beneficiaries would be those fans still waiting in line at the understaffed ticket booth.
At 7.30pm, 20 minutes after the scheduled start, the players showed they’d had enough of the excessive time taken for the umpires to signal their satisfaction by queueing up on the boundary as a folded cover still lay on the side of the pitch.
It’s no knock on the groundstaff, who work quickly and diligently under instructions. But a good-sized crowd for a domestic encounter eventually spent a total of 49 minutes looking on from the bank under rain-less skies, waiting for play. That was twice as long as it should have taken to get the pitch and ground ‘fit enough’ for play.
That’s where a change needs to come. Umpires and players – and signs on Wednesday night indicated the latter were embracing the right approach – have to be prepared to put the paying public further to the forefront of their minds and allow for conditions to be imperfect.
When play occurred, there was the odd slip in the outfield and plenty of rag-work on the ball for the bowlers, who couldn’t get optimal grip.
But that didn’t in any way detract from a quality contest in which conditions were the same for both sides – which is the decisive factor in ensuring showers or a sprinkled outfield doesn’t cause undue delay.
New Zealand Cricket has done a commendable job on prices for games in a saturated entertainment market. The ‘fan experience’ is also enhanced by greater choices and quality in food and beverage at a number of venues.
But a game with some traditions worth clinging to needs to adapt quickly to meet the reasonable expectations of ticketbuyers, instead of those fans being hosed.