The Borneo Post (Sabah)

New Zealand Cricket backs Eden Park for T20 final

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WELLINGTON: New Zealand Cricket (NZC) defended Eden Park Tuesday amid criticism the Auckland venue is too small to host internatio­nal fixtures such as the T20 triseries final.

The decider on Wednesday features New Zealand and Australia, who produced a run-fest at the same ground on Friday that left some purists fuming.

A total of 488 runs were scored at 12.7 an over as the sides smashed 32 sixes before Australia completed a worldrecor­d run chase of 245 to claim a five-wicket win.

The sight of mis-hits sailing over the boundary for six prompted veteran Australian commentato­r Jim Maxwell to call the venue “a joke” that should not host internatio­nal cricket.

Eden Park is best known as a rugby ground and its boundaries fall well short of the Internatio­nal Cricket Council’s 59.5-metre (65-yard) minimum.

The situation is allowed to stand because the Auckland stadium hosted internatio­nal cricket before the ICC regulation­s were introduced in 2007.

NZC chief operating officer Anthony Crummy said the governing body “absolutely” backed Eden Park as a venue.

“It’s unique, you can’t deny that, a lot of cricket grounds are,” he told Radio Sport.

“We think it adds to the colour of the internatio­nal schedule when players have to adapt (to a smaller ground).” Crummy also pointed out that Eden Park did not always produce high-scoring sloga-thons, saying a number of matches there in recent years had been low-scoring, tight affairs.

“It hasn’t failed to deliver great contest after great contest,” he said.

“When you look back, they’re not always high scoring either. The fans certainly have a great time when they’re there, we have great contests and we’re happy with it.”

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