Adam Parore: Hobart glory reveals size of test-match fan base

The Black Caps celebrate. Photo / Getty Images

Opinion

New Zealand Cricket made a big mistake when it moved away from the Boxing Day test at the Basin Reserve.

It was a critical mistake in terms of scheduling and NZC will continue to pay for it unless it reverses that decision soon. It's not just because it's a great fixture in its own right, but it also sets up the summer.

Those decisions have been made purely from commercial and financial angles, but NZC needs to turn it around and look at it from the perspective of developing our players and creating a base for the longer form of the game.

The value for NZC is not just creating better cricketers and upholding the traditions of the game, but also tapping into a test-match fan base that is bigger than it appreciates.

The stunning victory at Hobart this week brought home to me how many people still care about test cricket. They might pay only fleeting attention to the first three days, but there is still nothing that engages fans more than the final innings or final day or two of a good, close test match.

When people go to the pub and talk about cricket, they talk about test cricket. You create a result in T20 and one-day cricket, but it doesn't have the same impact; it doesn't capture people like the fourth and fifth days, or the final innings, of a test match.

I had mates of mine texting from all over the world Monday saying: "Are you watching this?". I went out for a drink with Dion Nash on Wednesday and all the guys we bumped into that night were just blown away by that last day and were telling the same stories we were.

It's an important dynamic and one that New Zealand Cricket needs to embrace.

The fourth day in Hobart was a glorious one, but I'm not sure it necessarily signals a return to the glory days for New Zealand.

It provides an indication that this team are capable of being very good, but they still look to me like a "young" side in the way they go about certain things.

The best New Zealand teams have traditionally been built around one or two world-class players complemented by half a dozen high-quality test players.

This side looks to me like they could hit those numbers, but they're a couple short at the moment.

The emergence in recent months of Doug Bracewell and Dean Brownlie - the more I see of him, the more I think he could turn into an excellent player - suggests to me we could have a really good side. Those two will be important.

If we can scratch up another couple of talented youngsters in the next year or two, then in three years' time this will be one of our best test sides.

The problem in New Zealand is that one or two key injuries can really affect the side because at first glance there is never much below the surface.

We don't have that depth like they used to in Australia, where a guy like Matthew Hayden could spend six years scoring thousands upon thousands of first-class runs before he got a decent crack at the test side.

However, when I look at the progress of Bracewell and Brownlie, neither of whom had compelling first-class figures, I feel heartened that we have guys ready to come straight from our domestic cricket and do a job for their country.