Cricket: NZC awaits council inquiry on McLean Park

FAN STAND: Mate, we're getting out of here. PHOTO/Duncan Brown.

Nelson Park across the road was hunky dory for an hour after the scheduled 2pm start so what happened to McLean Park?

That's what NZ Cricket head of corporate services and strategy Anthony Crummy wants to make sense of after a drizzle in drought country saw the second ODI abandoned in Napier last night much to the dismay of irate fans.

"Something has gone wrong here so we have to understand what that is," Crummy told reporters, revealing he had spoken to the Napier City Council, which had assured him there would be an independent review on the lead up to the cricket international.

Napier mayor Bill Dalton was among the crowd yesterday.

The council owns the venue and Central Districts cricket and HB Rugby Football Union are the lessees over summer and winter.

CD chief executive Pete de Wet revealed last month the major association has been in ongoing talks with the council on improving the facilities.

Said Crummy: "Has something gone wrong under the ground? Is something wrong with the structure under there, which is something we don't know ... so we'll assess from there."

He wasn't going to be drawn into speculations before expert analysis but added the ODI scheduled for the Black Caps v South Africa here on March 1 was the priority.

"We have to make sure that game goes ahead without interruptions ... and what steps need to be taken to make sure it doesn't happen again."

Asked if player safety was ultimately an issue, should the fans have been put out of their misery much earlier?

Crummy said it was standard practice for match-day officials to go through the routine but accepted enlightening crowds of the protocol surrounding an abandonment was something for them to address.

"That is the process [of giving the ground every chance to stage a game]. The match officials have to have a look ... it's disappointing it's taken that long ... ," he said, adding fans' tickets would be refunded.

It was also a case of whether a surface was fit to play on.

Australia's fourth-choice skipper Aaron Finch echoed the sentiments of Black Caps coach Mike Hesson that it was "blatantly obvious" the ground was unfit for play.

Finch said it was frustrating because when they turned up the weather looked promising but the outfield "didn't improve a hell of a lot".

"The pitch was in great shape, an absolute belter but, I think, it was unfit," he said, disclosing the outfield felt fine when they walked out but a few minutes into the warm up it became obvious soggy patches were surfacing on what is a rugby park during winter.

"In the three hours it didn't improve at all," he said, isolating patches in key spots at backward of point, cover and, particularly, in and around the ring encasing the wicket.

"You get a lot of traffic inside the ring so that was the major concern," he said, adding he hadn't played at a venue that shared the field with rugby. "I don't think the super-sopper did a hell of a lot to be honest. For a place that hasn't had rain for 11 weeks, it was extraordinary."

It had dawned on the tourists around 4pm that the park was unsafe so they had decided to throw the ball into the court of the ground officials.

Hesson told NZME: "We were training on Nelson Park 100m away and the ground was bone dry four hours ago [from 3pm] and the outfield here is not."