Cricket: Big summer shake-up expected

By RICHARD BOOCK

Don't be surprised if the move to axe the Boxing Day test is part of a bigger, wider-ranging reshuffle of New Zealand Cricket's home international programme.

Unless everyone has been on a different wavelength to NZC, today's announcement of the upcoming international schedule will make no provision for Wellington's traditional test match, and will instead feature a Boxing Day one-day international at Auckland's Eden Park.

If the drumbeats are correct, the move seems likely to annoy a lot of parochial Wellington cricket supporters, and will almost certainly signal a complete rejig of the international summer as we know it. And it wouldn't be before time.

Since the start of the concept in 1992-93, the twin-tour programme has been raising some fairly pertinent questions at NZC level - particularly in regard to the effect on the domestic competition, and the impact on spectator levels.

Critics of the Boxing Day test argue that it makes no sense to play so little cricket in New Zealand's peak holiday period, and that staging either an ODI series or the domestic one-day competition would be a much smarter move.

They point out that the pre-Christmas test is often poorly patronised because of the holiday rush, that the success of the Boxing Day test depends almost entirely on the billing of the touring team, and that the ODI series is usually starting when everyone is heading back to work.

Far better, they claim, to play the ODI series first, possibly in conjunction with the State Shield one-dayers, so that cricket enthusiasts throughout the country - rather than just in Wellington - can take the opportunity to taste some action.

And they may well get their wish when the touring schedules are made public this morning.

The expectation is that New Zealand will square off against Sri Lanka in a five-match ODI series during the Christmas break, after which they will begin a two-match test series - possibly including a provincial tour match.

The international season is poised to continue in mid-February when Australia arrive to play five ODIs, three tests, and possibly even an inaugural Twenty/20 match, the 20-over shoot-out that has proved popular this summer in England.

But whether Wellingtonians should make too much fuss over the suspension of the Boxing Day test is a moot point.

Of the five staged so far, the first two - against India and the West Indies - were reasonably well supported, whereas the other three (against Zimbabwe, Bangladesh and Pakistan) attracted fewer than 10,000 spectators each.

And a sobering point is that the declining crowds seem destined to continue over the ensuing five years, given that the next teams scheduled to tour New Zealand before Christmas are Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

So, do Wellingtonians care who the opposition is? Last summer's experience would suggest they do; the Basin Reserve test against South Africa in March captured almost twice the gate of the Boxing Day test against Pakistan.

There is also the not-so-insignificant matter of the 2002 players' strike, and the extra $440,000 a year that NZC has been forced to find - either through increased revenue generation, or cost-cutting measures.

Given that an Eden Park Boxing Day ODI was trialled two seasons ago and attracted a near-sellout crowd, it wasn't entirely unexpected that NZC might revisit the concept, if only to push for the most fiscally attractive option.