A new brand of social cricket – with games taking no longer than two hours – will soon launch in Whanganui.
Last Man Stands (LMS) is a worldwide T20 league with more than 180,000 players, 9500 teams and 150 cities involved.
South African great AB de Villers isits ambassador.
Cricket Whanganui general manager Pete Bowman, who is organising the local competition, said LMS was started in London in 2005 by two guys “looking for ways to get their mates back into cricket”.
“They worked on a format, originally as 11-a-side then eight-a-side, and over the years it’s evolved to what we see now,” he said.
“It’s a fast-paced, inclusive, game of social cricket and the largest amateur T20 competition in the world.
“We are joining that whānau of cricketers.”
Changes to traditional cricket rules include five-ball overs, batters retiring at 50, run-ups of no more than 12 metres and a 12-run “home run” if players hit a six off the last ball of an innings.
Retired batters can return to the crease once the rest of the team is out.
“Under the last man stands principle, the last batter can bat on their own but can only score twos, fours and sixes,” Bowman said.
“All wides and no-balls go to the batters, so for our registered number elevens who normally struggle to know which end of the bat to hold, they get scores at the end of the day.”
He said the format was aimed at everyone with a history in the game, including those who could not play club cricket at weekends, could not train because they had work or had not played since school.
“It allows girls and guys who play at a premier level to play with their mates who are backyard cricketers. It’s about levelling the playing field.”
Cricket Whanganui general manager Pete Bowman. Photo / NZME
Bowman, who has played in LMS leagues in Australia and Britain, said the Whanganui competition would start with a four-week “festival-style” competition from November 25, with a league to follow from January to March.
He hoped to get four to six teams for the pre-Christmas kickoff.
“To start with, it’s about people coming down, giving it a go and getting involved.
“It’s an opportunity to say, ‘Yep, we are really enjoying this and we want to commit,’ and they complete their registration.
“If you don’t have a team, get in touch. We want to connect people, get put together and have them play more cricket.”
Registering a team for the season costs $264, which includes eight custom-designed playing shirts.
The New ZealandHigh Commission to Australia team, which played in the Canberra league, began with the beige uniform made famous by the New Zealand team in the 1980s, Bowman said.
“Every season since they’ve changed the design to match one of the previous one-day New Zealand uniforms.”
Teams pay a fee of $120 a game to cover balls, ground hire, an umpire, live scoring, statistics and livestreaming.
“Everyone who plays LMS cricket gets a local ranking, a national ranking and a global ranking,” he said.
“Once we get to finals time, friends and family from around the world can tune in and watch the games each week.”
Bowman said cricket was played at the New Zealand Masters Games in Whanganui every two years and it would be great for the city to host a national LMS tournament in the years in between.
For more information, visit lastmanstands.com or email pete@lastmanstands.co.nz.
Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.
