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Sports correspondent & historian with |
Cricket is undergoing a real renaissance on both sides of the Tasman this summer.
The return of New Zealand Cricket to free-to-air television in January 2025 will provide a daily menu of Super Smash T20.
Over the ditch, attendance figures have rocketed at the Australia v India five-test match series, and the start of the Women’s Ashes has seen the full house sign put out.
Several years ago, NZC International and Major Association television coverage was hidden behind a second TV paywall in Spark Sport.
Cricket fans had reluctantly accepted Sky Sports pay-to-watch coverage over the years to watch our summer game.
However, fans were enraged when Spark Sport obtained television rights requiring a second monthly subscription.
Last season, NZ Cricket decided to return the national summer game to free-to-air television after nearly 30 years in the paywall wilderness.
All the Black Cap and White Ferns New Zealand home encounters and the Super Smash T20 extravaganza have taken centre stage on TV1 and its subsidiary Duke.
NZ Cricket seized the initiative to introduce Super Smash daily doubleheaders in January 2025.
No match highlighted the all-action intensity of Twenty 20 cricket better than Monday’s clash between the Auckland Aces and the Brave (M) at Seddon Park in Hamilton.
Innovation marketing by Northern Districts Cricket has seen their Men’s and Women’s Super Smash sides named ‘The Brave’ but differentiated by (M) and (W) initials.
The Auckland side batted first, and a batting blitzkrieg in the last two overs saw them post a super-target of 194.
Early trouble saw the home team at 2/42 before Katene Clarke and Robbie O’Donnell joined in a third-wicket partnership. O’Donnell was a well-known face to the Auckland players before shifting his allegiance from the City of Sails.
Caution went out the window as Clarke and O’Donnell set out to chase down a Mount Everest of runs.
The grassy banks of Seddon Park were under siege as the Brave pair smashed eight sixes in a 138-run partnership.
Clarke, who opened the Brave reply, belted 90 off 57 balls, with O’Donnell still at the end with an unbeaten 73.
O’Donnell was in scintillating form with the bat, with his 73 runs coming from just 38 balls and a strike rate of 192 (per one hundred balls).
Victory came with a big heave over the boundary with five balls to spare. The Northern Districts men’s team is back in the title hunt.
Ground attendance figures in Australia and New Zealand have been setting new records.
The Melbourne Boxing Day Test saw 373,691 patrons through the turnstiles, smashing an MCG record set during the Bradman’s era in 1936.
Another significant milestone was the Women’s Ashes series game one between Australia and England Women at the North Sydney Oval, which sold out.
At home, the recent Black Caps ODI and T20I series with Sri Lanka resulted in full houses at the Bay Oval, Seddon Park, Saxton Oval in Nelson and Christchurch’s Hagley Park.
Bay Oval’s attention now turns to the Super Smash doubleheader between the Brave Men and Women and the Otago Sparks and Volts on Saturday, 25th January 2025.
Local fans can catch the match live at the ground this season or tune into Duke for ball-to-ball television coverage.