Domestic cricket in New Zealand is popular with few, and concern is mounting over the quality of cricket for the upcoming season.
NZ Cricket experimented with the Georgie Pie Super Smash tournament last summer. Its promise to be an entertaining ‘carnival’ of T20 cricket fell short from the get-go, and the spectacle was average at best throughout the month-long competition.
Two games were played per day, but interestingly, each venue’s home franchise would play the first game, leaving crowds to empty out for the latter match.
The problem with domestic T20 cricket in New Zealand
In opening weekend at Seddon Park, numbers for the evening games were often below one hundred people.
In fact, it wasn’t until the final match until the Super Smash drew an ounce of excitement when Auckland and Wellington took it down to the wire. Taking place in Hamilton, Seddon Park was almost sold out for a final that featured two teams from other provinces.
Earlier that day, tickets were being given away for free to try to build up hype.
It could be argued that the poor crowds attending domestic cricket last year was due to fans holding out for the World Cup. Not only that, attendance to the Black Caps’ home series against South Africa, Sri Lanka, and then Pakistan were relatively poor.
As expected, once the World Cup began in February, grounds all around New Zealand were sold out, and a healthy amount of money was poured into the game in this country.
There simply is no reason for a domestic summer of cricket that falls flat this season.
Much attention will be on the Black Caps, stadiums will be full around the country as the Kiwis return home after falling short in their first ever World Cup final. Depending on the international schedule, some of the countries best players wont be available for the annual T20 competition, and this will make it hard for NZ Cricket to market it.
Four day white clothing cricket should be left alone, but the one-day and T20 competitions need a serious revamp.
It wouldn’t be surprising if the Georgie Pie Super Smash concept returns in the exact same format it did last season; clearly NZ Cricket care about the TV ratings and not the experience for crowds at the games.
The problem NZ Cricket face is that T20 cricket is no longer a new and exciting concept. The international game coupled with tournaments like the IPL, have ruined the uniqueness of the event somewhat, and the domestic game in New Zealand is suffering big time. There was a time when T20 cricket was a special ‘one-off’ each season, and many people believe it should have stayed that way. In some ways, T20 isn’t helping domestic cricket, especially in the smaller countries, but that is where the big money is, and players follow quickly thereafter.
It will be interesting to see how NZ Cricket present their T20 domestic competition this season, the Georgie Pie Super Smash was a flop, never dedicated to anything but television numbers, numbers that also were lower than expectations.
