They’ve built it but will they come?
When the evening session begins tomorrow in the first test between the Black Caps and England at Eden Park, it won’t be the first time the two teams have played test cricket under lights at the storied venue.
This week’s match may be the first day-night test played in New Zealand, and the 10th overall, but given the opposition, it’s impossible not to think of that night in 2002, where the Black Caps chose not to go off for bad light, blazed away with the floodlights on and set up one of their three wins against England this century.
Just over three years ago, the Black Caps were involved in the first day-night test, against Australia at the Adelaide Oval, and since then, there have been seven more in the men’s game, and one in the women’s. Cricket Australia have led the charge, hosting five of those nine matches.
Not only do day-night tests appeal as a solution to the general problem of poor crowds – just ,500 people turned up across four days to watch the Black Caps thump the West Indies in their last outing, at Seddon Park in Hamilton before Christmas – but they could also help fix the odd situation where Auckland, the country’s biggest city, usually doesn’t host one in any given summer.
From 2007 to 2012, Eden Park didn’t host a test.
In 2013, with England and the Barmy Army on our shores, and big crowds anticipated, test cricket returned, and 38,300 people came through the gates. The following year India played a test there, and a disappointing 32,400 came to watch. For the past three years, tests have been kept away again.
Will playing into the night lead to an improvement on those figures? Ticket sales have been steady and hopes are high, but we won’t know until the match starts. New Zealand Cricket is certainly making the effort to attract people along, more than it does for the average test, recognising that it needs to make a good first impression with the concept to help it take off.
As part of its marketing spiel reads: ‘‘No-one needs a sick-note to attend this one. No need to wag school either. That’s right – we’re playing this test at a time you can actually watch it’’.