I am a cricket fan. I played cricket at school. I played cricket when I left school and even played while I was living in Japan. I have played cricket in four different countries and it would be quite nice to play in other countries but that is for later.
In the international game, the 20 over format of the game has taken off around the world. Presently in South Africa, the T20 Champions League is taking place. This is like the football equivalent with the winners of the various domestic leagues fighting it out.
However, the grandaddy of it all is the IPL or the Indian Premier League. Since this has started, various other countries have tried to create their own leagues. Australia has the BBL which seems semi-successful. Sri Lanka started the SLPL. Bangladesh also had the BPL and I'm sure South Africa and the West Indies have something. I know that the West Indies had quite an awesome competition until their benefactor got chucked in jail.
New Zealand also has it own competition called the HRV Cup. It started in it's current format a couple of seasons ago and has quite a bit of television coverage. Traditionally domestic cricket in New Zealand hasn't had a great deal of coverage on TV.
So, can an IPL type league in New Zealand succeed. In a word, No. However I do have some ideas on how to make the HRV Cup more marketable.
1. This year the HRV Cup starts on November 2 with one game a week on Friday nights. Yes, not a great idea. Can you imagine watching cricket at night in the beginning of November? One word, brrrrrrr. I know they want the television coverage and they don't have much competition on those nights with the exception of the A-League or the NBL but this kind of cricket needs to be played in late December early January, period. No arguments. That is when it is played.
2. This is not a new idea and they do it but let me emphasize it, here is where you play these games, Mount Manganui, New Plymouth, Napier, Kerikeri, Paraparaumu, Nelson, Rotorua, Queenstown, Taupo, Gisborne (sorry, I don't know the holiday spots in the South Island very well) Why these places? This is where people go on holiday and I know when you are on holiday you are looking to do stuff and a HRV Cup is perfect. I go to the stock cars when I am at Mount Manganui and enjoy it. Do you think cricket would get the same type of people coming to it? You bet.
3. The pitches have to be better. People want to come and watch 195 plays 190, not 103 all out plays 105 for 8. They want to see sixes and fours and exceptional fielding like this. They want to see wickets all over the place. This is no different to what Kerry Packer had thought when he created World Series Cricket in 1977.
4. I think that I have said this in a previous post and I am going to say it again I think that it is time for cricket players to start specialising. Either you are going to play first class/test cricket or you are going to play T20 cricket. (I don't know where 50 over cricket fits into that.) I think we are seeing it more and more with T20 specialists. People like David Warner, Chris Gayle and Brendon McCullum say that they love playing for their country and they love playing test matches, and I'm sure that they do, especially McCullum but when push comes to shove and if they had to choose then they would go for T20, not just for the money but for the less strain that it puts on the body and I think they like playing in front of the big crowds. I know I would. New Zealand could lead the way in this by saying that you either play one or the other.
5. For the HRV Cup to succeed unfortunately you need to bring in overseas players. I say unfortunately because ideally you want your home grown players to be playing but like basketball and football that just isn't realistic. I think you have to bring the best players. That is just how it is. A couple of years ago Central Districts had Michael Yardy and Ian Blackwell as their overseas players. Both very good players who have played county cricket for a long time and have on occasions played for England. From what I could tell they both made great contributions but those players don't get people to the grounds. Chris Gayle does. David Warner does. Tillakaratne Dilshan does. Virender Sehwag does. That is a lot of money you need. Will you get it back? Maybe.
6. For those of you who don't know T20 cricket originated from a game called Cricket Max which was invented by former New Zealand batsman Martin Crowe. It was a 20 over game divided into four innings of 10 overs each. Bowlers could only bowl 4 overs and if you bowled a no ball the next ball was a free hit. Also there was a zone down the ground so if you hit that you got double the runs. So as you can imagine there were some massive scores. I went to the final in 1997 in Napier and Mark Greatbatch went absolutely nuts. So bring back the Max Zone. I know that it isn't an original idea but it is a good idea.
7. I think New Zealand cricket have to and they probably already have that the HRV Cup will not be as big as the IPL but why not try. Sometimes they need that one person to start pushing them to think beyond what they have. A Donald Trump type of guy could do that. Who do we have in New Zealand that would force them to think big? The Mad Butcher? He's a rugby league guy though.
8. I don't have great knowledge of the running of the IPL but I suppose like most professional franchise teams they are owned by one guy. New Zealand cricket needs to go cap in hand to these people. Is Graeme Hart a cricket fan? I doubt he would want to invest in a cricket team but you never know. After all for a lot of these guys, owning a sports team is an ego thing. Like they have done in Australia the six provinces need to change to a franchise system. Who knows, if I some money I might buy one.
9. Cricket generally in New Zealand needs to get its popularity back. Come to think of it, to compare the HRV Cup and the IPL is like comparing Tokyo and Palmerston North, you can't. But as the Chinese say a journey starts with a single step and for the HRV Cup to succeed cricket needs to regain its fans and how does that happen? The national team does better.
10. I'm not sure what the viewer figures are but does the HRV Cup need to be a bit more on terrestrial television. It is a Catch-22 though because pay TV is where you get your money from. If it is on TV a bit more would more fans pay for Sky? I'm sure they have done some research for that.
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