Growing up in a small town in New Zealand it was always hard to make it to the big sporting grounds situated around the country to see the worlds best cricketers take on the long struggling New Zealand lineup.
Despite not being the best team in the world young cricketers admired those representing our country, it gave us people to look up to inspire us. From the small town of Wanganui, situated approximately three hours from the countries capital Wellington, it was a three hour drive to Basin Reserve, four or so hours to Hamilton or five and a-bit hours to Eden Park to see our countries finest take on the likes of Steve Waugh, Darren Gough, Craig McDermott, and Anil Kumble.
For a young kid, whose parents owned and ran a fast food store I personally was never able to make it to any of the games between New Zealand and touring parties, and after reading a press release from the International Cricket Council this afternoon that the ICC Committee were meeting in Johannesburg this week to discuss adding further fixtures to the FTP (Future Tours Programme) it helped me think back to what it was like growing up – resulting in this opinion piece being written.
My family owned a Fish and Chip shop called Hilltop Fish Supply, and just around the corner was Victoria Park – the home of the Central Districts team now known as the Central Stags.
So on weekend’s I would take the 15 minute trip from the family home to the shop, help mum and dad setup for the days trading and then take the ten minute walk around the corner to Victoria Park, not because it was a beautiful ground to look at – however it was because during the Southern Hemisphere summer when touring teams were in the country the schedule allowed the teams to play tour matches.
Teams like Australia now-a-days fly into New Zealand play five one day matches and then fly out, long gone are the days that I remember where teams played four day tour matches in some rural areas where fans who couldn’t make it to the big cities to watch the internationals being played could still catch glimpses of the worlds top cricketers in action live.
Victoria Park holds many memories for me, so many touring teams not only coming to play against the Central Districts team but also New Zealand A, where looking at the New Zealand Blackcaps lineup over the years that followed and seeing new players break into the lineup that you remember from their “younger” days.
Back before the International Cricket Council and the games governing bodies realised how much money they could make each and every year by filling the year with non-stop tours, tournaments and competitions it was a game for the fans. Victoria Park, when I was growing up, played host to a touring England, India and Australian sides both against the Central Districts and New Zealand A lineups, I would sit there for days on end watching every ball being bowled and when the lunch break come would race around the corner to get lunch from my parents and head back to the ground for play to resume.
During the day the players were more than accomodating, signing autographs for the fans, heading to another pitch and welcoming the younger fans to bowl to them in the nets, play catch with them or just answer questions about the international cricketers life-style.
Meeting the players such as Michael Vaughan, Darren Gough, Alec Stewart, and countless Indian players (whose names I remember but dare not attempt to write down incase Indian readers of this website get upset with my attempted spelling) inspired me to become a cricketer, not to mention the hundreds and thousands of other children around New Zealand and the world who have had the same luxury that I had.
However now that everything has become about money it is sad to see that those days are over, tour matches are now played at suburban grounds (if they are played at all), where you are required to pay to enter to cover the players match and appearance fees, meeting or talking to the players is more or less impossible now as they are all too important and get paid too much to even care. This does not just include Cricketers but players of all sport – those who now charge for a signature, those who only meet and greet fans from behind a table, or across a fence, how is this inspiring youngsters to get into the game that is not that exciting like it’s major competitors?
The Good old Days is a saying I never thought I would ever be able to say, but this is one thing I miss about growing up and it is a great example to show how the game of cricket has changed, no longer do we have the five week tours where teams could play tour matches in rural communities it is all now slim-lined cricket in order to earn the players, respective boards and the International Cricket Council more money.
I for one miss the Good ol’ days…
This was originally published at sportfore, click view for more information