Mark Reason: New Zealand’s best cricket team has been removed from the gaze of low-income fans

OPINION: Three years ago, Claire Curran, then Minister of Broadcasting, hinted to me that one day, in a golden socialist future, we might again watch our national free-to-air sports television. Then Curran was out of a job and mugs like you and I were getting even more price hikes if we wanted to see both the All Blacks and Black Caps on TV.

The sale of New Zealand Cricket’s broadcast rights to Spark Sport should be viewed as a national scandal. The numbers tell us that cricket is dying in our schools, and yet the governing body has chosen to take a little more currency at the expense of viewership numbers.

How many cricket fans would have seen New Zealand demolish the West Indies last week? How many will see Kane Williamson’s men take on former Caribbean greats in Wellington this weekend? And if we shell out the money, there was no guarantee that the image would not be left behind. Sometimes it can be like watching a stop motion animation.

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If I want to watch rugby and cricket in these days without lighting, I have to pay Sky $ 33 a month and Spark $ 24 a month. What low-income family can afford that? And yet, we might or might not be looking at, for most, the best New Zealand cricket tryouts team ever.

Surely there can be no argument now that Kane Williamson is the best hitter in this country. Even the captain of the West Indies was imploring his men to hit more like Williamson. How funny that sounded. The country of Viv Richards, the blaster master, was being asked to imitate an elbow from Tauranga.

And there is also a very strong case for the view that this is now New Zealand’s strongest test bowling attack. It lacks a top-notch spinner and can fight abroad, but the arrival of Kyle Jamieson means there is now no truce for rival teams. They no longer think about shedding the starting pair and then racking up runs.

Half of the schoolchildren in this country should enjoy the idea of ​​going out to their backyard and telling their classmates about it while banging on the garage door with a tennis ball; “Williamson takes the guard, one less than his century, and there he is, beaten through the blankets from the rear foot, the crowd is standing up to pay tribute to the remarkable New Zealand captain.”

Instead, there is a virtual silence on the fantasy airwaves because most of the young people in this country will never see reality. The other day I cruelly asked my brother-in-law what he would choose, if he were forced to choose between the festive trifle or a game of backyard cricket on Christmas Day.

He said; “It’s not fair. It’s like asking me to choose which of my two children I would throw out of the lifeboat.

Caleb cares so much about the game, but I don’t think for a moment that this Labor Party does. How ridiculous that Grant Robertson is the minister of sports. How can you possibly have time to deal with our national games when you are also Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, Infrastructure and Careers?

I can imagine a sketch in which Robertson sits in a room and argues with himself. But perhaps no one else in the Labor Party wanted the job. Maybe they are all apparatchiks tied to an armchair who think that deep cover is something you throw over the back of a sofa.

The other day a reader named Bridget Hargreaves wrote a letter to Stuff with the title “Just no cricket.” Bridget pleaded; “The pain of a ghastly Wellington spring could have been eased by watching some T20 cricket on the couch. But no! NZ Cricket has sold the television rights to Spark Sport, which means there are several technical hurdles to overcome to get coverage. I care about the elderly in nursing homes. My grandmother loved to watch cricket in her retirement village. And it’s not even on Radio Sports anymore.

“Give the cricket back to the people.”

Bridget wasn’t entirely right. The first T20 games were shown open-air, although not even my son, who was a tech savvy, was aware of this. And the radio coverage may have changed, but it is still eminently listenable. However, many of us will agree with Bridget’s sentiment. People who love New Zealand cricket have sold out.

In 2017, Curran told me that the Labor Party was not prepared to “risk the viability of our sports codes by turning everything upside down.” What he seemed to be saying was that Labor would continue to unleash the capitalist market so that the governing body of cricket in this country could funnel money towards the salaries of elite players, while playing at the school and club level. continued to wither.

The only voice against this in the last government was Winston Peters, whose party sought to amend the Broadcasting Act in order to bring more sports back to the outdoors. He cited the case of Australia and many other countries that had multiple open events and argued that such a move would contribute to a healthy and cohesive society.

But Peters is no longer in Parliament, he is still alone in government, so cricket will continue to die in this country. At the beginning of the millennium, about 18,000 schoolchildren and girls played cricket. The latest census showed that the number had dropped below 10,000, even lower than badminton.

I look at this current West Indies team with tears in my eyes. His attack on bowling would not even have made the third team of the great sides of the 70s and 80s. The game is dying on the islands. Once upon a time, if you spoke cricket, you were a friend in any bar in the West Indies. Now you are a freak.

And I can see the same thing happening in New Zealand. Make the most of this wonderful Kane Williamson outfit, because this is the end of the golden summer. Soon New Zealand won’t be good enough to get a second game against East Punjab and the joke will run: “imagine if we had to play all of Punjab.”