Cricket: Full summer schedule ahead for cricketers

By TERRY MADDAFORD

A major revamp of domestic cricket, including returning the Hawke Cup to the grassroots and an allied new-look second XI competition, gives real hope that the 2000-2001 season could be the best in years.

For the first time, the Shell Trophy will be played over two full home-and-away rounds of four-day matches, with the first three rounds of the one-day Shell Cup being played as the fifth day at the same venues.

While the complete programme has yet to be released by New Zealand Cricket, which is awaiting final confirmation of the itinerary for the February-March Pakistan visit, the domestic season will start in late October with a compacted Cricket Max programme. The finals will be played in early November.

The Shell Trophy will start later in the month with the November 27-30 first round followed by the first Shell Cup game, on December 1. A further two rounds (Trophy and Cup) will be played before Christmas.

The Shell Cup will take centre stage in its traditional holiday spot in late December-early January, with the semifinals scheduled for January 21 and the finals from January 25 to 27. The remaining two rounds in the first half of the Trophy season will also be played in January. Trophy rounds six to 10 will be played throughout February. There will be no final.

Originally it had been planned to use the Trophy competition as the basis of selecting a New Zealand A team to tour Australia in March, but that trip has been put on hold as Australian teams face a busy March.

New Zealand A will play a three-day game against Pakistan before the third test. The second XI programme starts on December 27 with three three-day games and two one-day games.

Auckland, as an example, will play Wellington in Wellington from December 27 to 29 and Northern Districts in Auckland from December 31 to January 2. They will then go to Palmerston North for a three-day game against Central Districts, followed by one-day games against Canterbury and Otago, also in Palmerston North. All teams will play their last three games in either Palmerston North or Wanganui.

The Hawke Cup will be up for grabs. Defending cup-holders Dunedin City are no longer eligible as they and all other metropolitan teams have been excluded.

The minor associations will hold a series of eliminations throughout the season with semifinals scheduled for March 10 to 12 and the final from March 23 to 25.

Toss in the tours by Zimbabwe and Pakistan, the women's World Cup in Christchurch from November 28 , the women's State Insurance Cup from early January and the late tour by the South African men's under-19 side, and it promises to be one of the busiest and anticipated domestic seasons in years.