Central Districts chief executive Pete de Wet is bullish about the chances of McLean Park, Napier, hosting more cricket matches. PHOTO/FILE
McLEAN PARK in Napier is on track to create history in March when it will become a venue for a drop-in wicket during a domestic men's cricket match.
From next summer the manufactured strip also will become a part of the international fixtures at the venue, according to Central Districts Cricket chief executive Pete de Wet.
"It'll be the first time we'll be playing on a drop-in at McLean Park," says de Wet. "After the South Africa ODI on the 5th of March the old wickets get taken out and we'll revert to the drop-ins."
The "reasonably good" weather in Hawke's Bay means more cricket games could be scheduled for McLean Park.
That bullish sentiment comes on the foundation of cultivating six drop-in wickets for now.
"It does mean that we can get out on McLean Park earlier than we have [so] certainly that could result in us playing a few more games in Napier than we have at this time of the year," says de Wet.
The tray to prepare the wicket has already been installed at Nelson Park and, he suspects, the first two strips have been bedded in with the intention of playing a historic first match on the resumption of the CD Stags' four-day Plunket Shield campaign on March 14 when they host the Wellington Firebirds.
While the jargon zips past his head like an ill-delivered beamer, de Wet understands that the technology to manufacture drop-in wickets has come on in leaps and bounds.
"Five years ago you were unable to get a very consistent wicket from a drop-in [wicket] but that has changed a lot so, yeah, that'll certainly give us another alternative looking into the future but the weather is a tricky one and there's not much we can do."
De Wet doesn't buy into the perceived sense of parochialism that has elevated Taranaki's status as the "home of T20 competition".
"I think the reason we've got a really good fan base in Taranaki is because we play a lot of our cricket there," he says, believing if CD play more cricket in Napier then that will build an affinity with the fan base here as well.
"Having more games of cricket will mean more people will be aware that the Stags are playing there," he says, believing McLean Park had a reasonable turnout for the McDonald's Super Smash game against Otago Volts on Friday, December 16.
"It's about building momentum and doing a good job around marketing the Stags as a product and I think we'll start to get people at the stadium."
De Wet has been in discussion with the Napier council in trying to find a solution to the sun strike issue that has been affecting games in the past few summers.
Two Fridays ago umpires stopped play for about half an hour because Jesse Ryder and Mahela Jayawardene couldn't see the white ball as the dipping sun rays caught their eyes from the Hastings City end of the park.
"It wasn't ideal having players off as long as they were and we didn't expect it to be as long as it was," says de Wet of the T20 disruption.
"We obviously expected it would happen because we had discussed it at the pre-match meeting but players stayed out longer than we expected," he says, mindful it disrupts the players' rhythm.
"It's definitely something we'll be taking up with the council ... because I think there's a solution to that."
Turning it into a win-win situation by planting a hoarding is an option but de Wet says they'll have to call in a structural engineer to look into it.
So what's the future of Yarrow Stadium, tailor-made for rugby, after a dodgy sand-based outfield cost Black Cap Doug Bracewell the T20 season due to a knee injury?
De Wet says McLean Park is a rugby venue as well and CD is able to capitalise on it so he expects the New Plymouth District Council to come up with a solution.
"If you look at McLean Park the Magpies were only playing there 10 weeks ago but it was a pretty spectacular park for cricket that Friday night," he says, which is a tribute to head groundsman Phil Stoyanoff and his staff.
"We're going into next season into the third year of a three-year contract with Yarrow Stadium so there's an expectation we'll be playing cricket there again next season.
"I think the onus is on us collectively as CD, New Zealand Cricket and New Plymouth district power to see how we can come up with a solution."
The Yarrow Stadium issues can be rectified but de Wet sees time as a critical factor.
"If there hadn't been so much water in the outfield we probably could have made a solution to turn it around by the 31st [of this month] but that just wasn't the case."
De Wet believes playing the fixtures in the latter part of the campaign may be a possibility to overcome inclement weather.