Rachin -The Kiwi wonderkid

[Athlai]

I bet his dad can already see the IPL $$$$.

Reckon this one comes true this year, he's already got himself a min contract, but a big showing in the next Test see him maybe get $100k.

 

[silentstriker]

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Haha fair. But you gotta post the denominator, not just the numerator.

 

[nzfan]

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Dunno - it depends. I don't know how much pressure the kid has in his daily life. The father could have just posted the videos like people post spelling bees and such - it doesn't necessarily have to translate to any pressure. It all depends on the father obviously.

And yes, predicting any professional cricket, let alone international cricket is beyond crazy at such an age.

I'm in the same boat as silentstriker... easier to predict winning a lotto as compared to a kid making to international cricket. Particularly not when they are like 5 or 7

Individual sport maybe you can but team sport very hard, depends on lots of variables.

 

[thierry henry]

Given that the world's best per-capita sports team, the mighty Black Caps, are selected from a total pool of between 34 and 47 active cricket players in NZ at any given time, the likelihood of Rachin playing internationals was always very high.

 

[Tom Flint]

Yeah but then I heard there isn't a lot else to do in new Zealand other than play cricket in the summer and rugby in winter?

 

[thierry henry]

Yeah but then I heard there isn't a lot else to do in new Zealand other than play cricket in the summer and rugby in winter?

I hate to turn our respective jokes into a serious conversation, but you've forced my hand because the premise of yours directly contradicts the premise of mine. Cricket really isn't very popular in NZ (some posters to disagree, no doubt). A traditional/well covered by mainstream media sport with low participation/engagement in reality, imo.

 

[Flem274*]

Social cricket is booming, actual club level is thin.

 

[Athlai]

I've never played after primary school

 

[thierry henry]

Feel like in Auckland cricket (particularly at the more social end of the scale) is basically 90% kept afloat by recent Indian migrants who are completely unrepresented at FC or international level. But that's just my heavily urbanised, ignorant of agribusiness, city slicker observation.

 

[thierry henry]

Also when you're around heavily Maori and PI communities or just working-to-lower middle class in general it's easy to feel as though cricket is a complete irrelevancy from a foreign planet. Sorry for derailing the thread btw.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Yeah cricket isn't that big. Heaps more people play basketball, soccer/football, and (touch) rugby. Many Kiwis see it as time consuming, slow moving, and expensive - I try to be quite frugal but I've spent heaps on gear (including some 2nd hand) on my kids.

 

[Fuller Pilch]

Perhaps if cricket got bigger we'd be up with the great West Indian and Australian sides.

 

[Flem274*]

Feel like in Auckland cricket (particularly at the more social end of the scale) is basically 90% kept afloat by recent Indian migrants who are completely unrepresented at FC or international level. But that's just my heavily urbanised, ignorant of agribusiness, city slicker observation.

It's similar elsewhere but less extreme than Auckland. Social cricket tends to be supported by workplaces putting a team together. Club cricket can even have entire sides of migrants, and then other clubs who might just have 1-2. I'm not sure what to read into that.

I should probably play again if I can get off Saturdays. Cricket needs my incompetence.

 

[Immenso]

Cricket being less popular than the various football codes is pretty common accross the world, though.

For NZ, rather like rowing, it is popular enough in the 'right' places to funnel enough talented youth to the programs. Is my take. By places I mean the traditional schools.

 

[Chubb]

There was definitely a shift in Wellington just in the five years I lived there away from two day grades to social cricket. When I started at Onslow we had a 3rd team playing second grade two dayers, sometimes was a struggle to get players but always got a side up. Two years later we had to withdraw from the league due to defaulting three times.

My Easts team plays in the fourth grade and we also struggled to get a team most of the time.

As I've got older I have started to appreciate one day games more. When I was single I was happy to commit to two dayers but now, with a partner, I enjoy the Sunday 36 over VTCA competition here in Melbourne because I know it will be over by 5pm at the latest, much easier to organise your life.

I'd also say the attitudes in the lower grade two day comps can be pretty toxic, I don't really want to spend a day being subject to increasingly aggressive and personal sledging by the Mayor of Hutt City at the Wainuiomata recreation ground, thanks.

 

[Bahnz]

Feel like in Auckland cricket (particularly at the more social end of the scale) is basically 90% kept afloat by recent Indian migrants who are completely unrepresented at FC or international level. But that's just my heavily urbanised, ignorant of agribusiness, city slicker observation.

The under-representation of the Asian community and almost complete absence of the Polynesian community in professional domestic cricket does make me wonder whether NZ is a few years away from a similar sort of scandal to what's hit England in the past month. Hope not, but I wouldn't be surprised.

 

[thierry henry]

Cricket being less popular than the various football codes is pretty common accross the world, though.

For NZ, rather like rowing, it is popular enough in the 'right' places to funnel enough talented youth to the programs. Is my take. By places I mean the traditional schools.

Oh yeah absolutely, cricket inherently is a bit of a hard sell for "the masses". I imagine it's a bit like England where I understand that despite the rich history of cricket there, across the whole populace it's really not that big. I also figure that Australia is rather less "cricket mad" than we might imagine it is, although I think it's a bit more of a cultural staple there than it is in NZ.

Really I'm just countering a possible misconception that cricket must be huge in NZ given our heroic performances, and humblebragging by doing so.

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

I'd also say the attitudes in the lower grade two day comps can be pretty toxic, I don't really want to spend a day being subject to increasingly aggressive and personal sledging by the Mayor of Hutt City at the Wainuiomata recreation ground, thanks.

I've referenced this many times before, but when I used to play 2-day grades in Lower Hutt, some of the behaviour was absolutely shocking.

 

[thierry henry]

The under-representation of the Asian community and almost complete absence of the Polynesian community in professional domestic cricket does make me wonder whether NZ is a few years away from a similar sort of scandal to what's hit England in the past month. Hope not, but I wouldn't be surprised.

It's extremely common to play against teams entirely consisting of first generation Indian immigrants, and I think in large part that's because they choose to form a team together - but then I think that was a feature in the Yorkshire thing too, so not exactly a defence against accusations of racism? I also think it might be a bit different in that rather than being "locals" of subcontinental heritage, a huge number of the cricketers in Auckland are actually very recent (last 5 years or so) and/or temporary migrants.

 

[Prince EWS]

Oh yeah absolutely, cricket inherently is a bit of a hard sell for "the masses". I imagine it's a bit like England where I understand that despite the rich history of cricket there, across the whole populace it's really not that big. I also figure that Australia is rather less "cricket mad" than we might imagine it is, although I think it's a bit more of a cultural staple there than it is in NZ.

Really I'm just countering a possible misconception that cricket must be huge in NZ given our heroic performances, and humblebragging by doing so.

Cricket's very culturally ingrained in Australia. Lots of people claim to hate it but people kind of know what's going in on the home Tests to an extent even if they don't like watching it, especially if it's against India or England. Football codes are bigger but cricket dominates the summer psyche.

Participation is absolutely tanking though.