Summer without Black Caps seems like a wasted washout
A summer without the Black Caps is no summer at all.
For many in the upper North Island, the widespread damage wrought by flash flooding presents far more pressing concerns.
In a sporting context, though, the dearth of sun, the non-existent summer, sits alongside a lament for the Black Caps’ absence from home shores.
Two-and-a-half months — 77 days all told — between home appearances by the time the Black Caps host the first of two headline tests against England in Mt Maunganui next week should never be repeated.
Sure, the domestic Super Smash competition featuring the odd international act entertained a limited audience. Attendance for the elimination finals in Dunedin on Thursday underlines the folly of midweek fixtures.
Nothing, of course, compares with the lure of the national team.
The December-January months should always place cricket at the forefront of New Zealand’s sporting consciousness.
This summer, that rare window has instead been squandered, with the White Ferns last playing at home on December 17, too.
Cricket is to the Kiwi summer what crackling is to pork. Only this season, international cricket has disappeared from view faster than a melting ice cream in a child’s hand.
A summer missing the Black Caps is like Christmas without lights. Surf without salt. Pohutukawa trees and no bloom.
The prime time holiday season without the Black Caps is a missed opportunity to inspire the next generation, particularly for a sport that has suffered for viewership visibility on the soon-to-be-defunct Spark Sport platform.
For aspiring cricketers, nothing compares with sitting on the embankment at the Basin Reserve, Seddon Park, the Bay Oval, or Hagley Oval watching heroes in the flesh, attempting to emulate their feats in makeshift games between balls, while seeking treasured signatures on miniature bats as they field on the boundary. fans sleep — significantly downgrades those opportunities. It leaves the lingering question about where priorities truly lie.
The Black Caps risk becoming a case of out of sight, out of mind.
International cricket increasingly teeters on a fractured, fragile tipping point thanks to the proliferation of global Twenty20 leagues that severely compromise national squads and congested playing windows.
Trent Boult’s absence — after returning from the newly-formed T20 competition in the United Arab Emirates — for the looming England tests offers the most glaring local example of a wasted strike weapon.
The big three cricketing nations — India, Australia, England — hold an ironclad financial grip that dictates market forces control scheduling.
Rather than take centre stage at home throughout Christmas and New Year, the Black Caps were instead in Pakistan, in part to play make-up games following their abandoned 2021 tour for security reasons.
This year’s one-day men’s World Cup was another major factor in the Black Caps exposing depth to Indian conditions to complete six weeks on the Subcontinent.
As Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes prepare to briefly transfix New Zealand cricket fans by unleashing England’s “Bazball” for the belated highlight of the summer, there’s a sense the two tests are all too fleeting.
When Sri Lanka arrive next month for two tests, three ODIs and three T20s, the Black Caps will be competing with wall-to-wall sport — notably the ever-encroaching return of the rugby and league seasons.
Next summer will be marginally better, with the Black Caps hosting Bangladesh for five short-format fixtures over the Christmas-New Year period. South Africa then arrive for two tests in February, before Australia contest two tests and three T20s.
If that’s a pointer to further future schedules, capitalising on the holiday season no longer appears New Zealand Cricket’s priority.