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Summer of cricket at Basin – next year

Brendon Egan brendon.egan@stuff.co.nz Marc Hinton

The Black Caps could play more matches in Wellington next summer with capital cricket fans compensated for not being able to see the team play live this season.

Wellington was the big loser yesterday as New Zealand Cricket streamlined its home international schedules for the Black Caps and White Ferns to mitigate the risk of an Omicron outbreak ruining fixtures.

For the first time since the 1995-96 season, Wellington’s Basin Reserve won’t host a Black Caps test during a home summer.

The South African men’s side will remain in Christchurch for the entire duration of its visit, playing both its scheduled tests at Hagley Oval, starting on February 17, rather than decamping to Wellington for the second match.

NZC chief executive David White confirmed South Africa had been granted a preliminary exemption to train at the sporting managed isolation facility at Lincoln, near Christchurch.

Wellington cricket fans were hit hard by the announcement. The two T20Is against Australia (subject to MIQ availability) in March, originally planned for Sky Stadium, were moved to Napier’s McLean Park – which will stage all three matches.

Other alterations will see the White Ferns short-form series against India (one T20 and five ODIs) played solely at John Davies Oval in Queenstown.

The Netherlands men’s tour will be split between Mount Maunganui (one T20 and one ODI) and Hamilton (two ODIs). Dunedin’s University Oval was supposed to have hosted an ODI against the Netherlands, but have missed out.

White said the venue changes were one part of a contingency plan designed to safeguard the health of all participants, and to reduce the chance of matches or series being jeopardised by an outbreak.

He felt for Wellington cricket fans, who wouldn’t have the Black Caps in the city this summer, but said they were set to be rewarded with more matches next season.

‘‘Absolutely. We’ve got a fantastic summer next year. India is coming for three ODIs, three T20s. We’ve got two test matches against Sri Lanka and a full suite of shortform cricket, plus we’ve got two England test matches and I know they’re going to be very attractive [for host venues],’’ White said.

‘‘The Basin is one of our premier cricket grounds in New Zealand. Of course, we’re hopeful of having a big test match there next year.’’

White was gutted for fans in Wellington, Dunedin, and Nelson, who won’t see the White Ferns play India there, but said crowds would have been minimal, or possibly not at all.

The intent was to play all matches on the dates, and at the times, previously scheduled, and try to allow venues to accommodate multiple ‘‘pods’’, each of no more than 100 spectators – in accordance with government guidelines.

Having reduced crowds over the rest of the summer for the Black Caps and White Ferns would have a financial impact for NZC. With matches still able to go ahead it did soften the blow as it would allow them to fulfil broadcasting and sponsorship commitments.

‘‘We will be taking a hit on the gates, but it’s not quite significant as the hit we would have for other commercial areas of the business,’’ White said.

Patrons who had purchased tickets for games no longer being played at the advertised venues would receive full refunds.

Blues coach Lean MacDonald, right, looks on admiringly as Roger TuivasaSheck talks to the media yesterday.

The honesty was refreshing, transparency encouraging. Roger Tuivasa-Sheck understands the extent of the challenge he’s about to dive facefirst into as New Zealand’s latest code-hopping rugby recruit, but is clearly energised by his latecareer reinvention.

The vocabulary was as impressive as the reflections when the new Blues signing, and All Black wannabe, spoke to media for the first time since becoming a fulltime rugby player yesterday. His use of the word ‘‘discombobulating’’ might have been his most impressive act of an encouraging first dab into the media spotlight as a XVs exponent.

With new coach Leon MacDonald sitting alongside the man earmarked to wear the Blues No 12 jersey this Super Rugby season, Tuivasa-Sheck ticked a lot of boxes as he spoke about his transition back to the code he last played as a schoolboy at Otahuhu College, and the difficulties he faces fashioning his game to meet those challenges. If attitude is half the battle, this Kiwi sporting star appears well on the way to a successful transition.

Yes, the circumstances have been challenging. He was supposed to have a full NPC campaign with Auckland to help with the conversion, but had that plucked from his grasp by the pandemic. Instead he’s had to make do with private training sessions alongside comeback All

Roger Tuivasa-Sheck

Black Caleb Clarke (‘‘I saw on Insta he was training and reached out . . . I’ve learned a lot’’) and an elongated pre-season with the Blues.

He is still waiting to play his first game of rugby – set to come in the Blues’ pre-season opener against the Hurricanes in Takapuna next Saturday – and has not tucked an oval ball under his arm in anger since his final outing for the Warriors last July. It’s been a long wait.

But, no, he doesn’t consider himself a rugby player. Just yet.

‘‘It’s too early,’’ he says in a jaunty press conference introduction. ‘‘I keep telling myself it’s not until I lace up and run out in the colours it’s going to feel official. At the moment I feel like a rookie and I’m learning with everyone around me.’’

The most challenging aspect of his new vocation, he says, is understanding his role. ‘‘It’s a tough gig because one week I feel, ‘OK, I’m starting to get it’, then the next I’m out of position. You’ve got to keep learning as you go. And creating the connections around me. As a midfielder you’ve got to connect with the guys inside and out, and I’ve got to constantly adapt.’’

‘‘I keep telling myself it’s not until I lace up and run out in the colours it’s going to feel official.’’

Then came that word, when he was asked about the biggest difference between codes.

‘‘What’s still discombobulating to me is the constant change in pictures,’’ he ruminated. ‘‘In high school, if someone was in front, OK, you attack that guy. [Now] when you look back up it’s a whole new picture.’’

Tuivasa-Sheck would enlighten us more on the transition between such a structured code as league and the

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2022-01-28T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-01-28T08:00:00.0000000Z

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