Numbers don’t lie with poor test crowds – but hopes high for England
Attracting crowds to test match cricket in New Zealand, particularly before Christmas, has become a treacherous uphill battle.
New Zealand Cricket are not alone, of course, but they are certainly pinning their hopes on the inaugural day-night pink-ball match against England at Eden Park in March on reviving their numbers for the five-day game.
Around only 3,500 turned up to the second test between the Black Caps and the West Indies in Hamilton, across the four days it lasted, as the hosts completed a 2-0 series whitewash with a 240-run win. That was 1,196 on Saturday, 1,186 on Sunday, 686 on Monday and on Tuesday, just 394.
NZC general manager commercial, James Wear, said those figures compared very similarly to the numbers which attended the Pakistan test in Hamilton last November, while the one against South Africa at Seddon Park in March this year had a healthier turnout.
The first test against the Windies at the Basin Reserve in Wellington attracted around 7000 across the four days, with the same ticket prices as Hamilton. He acknowledged NZC weren’t exactly enamoured with the numbers they had seen.
‘‘Obviously we’d prefer to have more people there. It’s definitely known that we do struggle to get The Black Caps know they have bigger fish to fry come their testcricket resumption at the end of the season, but they can happily dine out on a cracking start to their summer.
New Zealand romped to a 2-0 series whitewash over the woeful West Indies in Hamilton yesterday, coasting to a 240-run victory on day four at Seddon Park, as the tourists were bundled out for 203.
It followed similar scenes to the innings and 67-run win in the first test in Wellington. The once dominant Windies have now become New Zealand’s most-conquered test rival, nudging ahead of Sri Lanka, on 15 defeats.
It carries on quite the home test record this Black Caps side – three sweeps in their past four series, 13 wins from their last 19 games (three draws, three losses), and a fifth successive unbeaten effort at Seddon Park (one draw).
Captain Kane Williamson cut a delighted figure post-match, as he summed up his side’s professional and clinical dismantling of the tourists, which has maintained New Zealand’s spot at No 4 in the test rankings, a place ahead of Australia.
‘‘Two very very good performances,’’ was how he described it. ‘‘The highlight would probably be how we adapted and stuck to our plans and executed those plans.’’
Sent in, New Zealand’s 373 was a real team effort, that 61-run 10thwicket partnership between Tim Southee and Trent Boult being an absolute turning point.
‘‘Lower order runs are so valuable,’’ Williamson said. ‘‘As a fielding unit when you see they’re nine down you’re certainly not banking on them putting on 50, that’s for sure.’’
Defeated skipper Kraigg Brathwaite agreed that stand on the second morning proved decisive.
‘‘That gave them a fair bit of momentum going into when they bowled,’’ he said.
Then, seemingly not taking enough lessons from the capital, the Windies folded for 221, which left the Black Caps an age to bat, Ross Taylor making the most of it, in scoring his record-equalling
17th test century to join Williamson and late mentor Martin Crowe atop the Kiwi charts.
‘‘He’s such a fine player, a world-class player, it was great he could achieve such a fantastic thing for himself and for the team as well,’’ Williamson said.
In setting the Windies a wouldbe people to test cricket.’’
It’s the issue right around the world too, as Twenty20 takes hold and attracts a big following, and brings in new fans.
And for the Black Caps, they now go on a lengthy run of 23 (24 including the T20 tri-series final) white-ball matches, with the public having to pick and choose when and where they spend their world-record 444 with more than two days to play, it was then just a matter of what time the curtains would be drawn, as the visitors began the day 30-2.
Boult became the sixth New Zealander to take 200 test wickets, and while Roston Chase’s 64 and Raymon Reifer (29 off 109 balls) delayed the inevitable for a while, poor old double hit-wicket victim money with plenty of options at their disposal.
In a summer with just two more tests, Wear is predicting those remaining ones – against England in March/April, in Auckland and Christchurch – will attract ‘‘significantly more’’ punters, chiefly due to the time of the year.
But it’s the first day-nighter in New Zealand, and the ninth Sunil Ambris retired hurt with a fractured arm, Neil Wagner picked up three scalps to finish top of the series stakes with 14, and Mitchell Santner wrapped things up in successive deliveries. overall, which has NZC chiefly excited, like plenty of other authorities round the globe.
‘‘The pre-sale numbers four months out – I can’t tell you what they are – but they are significant for us,’’ Wear said.
‘‘So we think it’s really going to be a shot in the arm for test cricket in this country.’’