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*Unofficial* New Zealand Black Caps Thread

Immenso

Immenso

International Regular
Bahnz

Bahnz

Hall of Fame Member
Completely missed that Doug Bracewell also picked up a gig at Essex. Thought his numbers looked pretty great until I remembered that this is early season county cricket and anyone averaging north of 20 is basically garbage.
 
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RMBolton

School Boy/Girl Captain
I've been seeing reports NZC is interested in hosting Pakistan in mid to late January. I really hope they're false. I'd rather they play Super Smash; this upcoming season is the only opportunity it'll have during the current FTP to be front and centre of the NZ summer, & have all BCs available. Is that really too much to ask?
 
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RMBolton

School Boy/Girl Captain
If only it was Tests. They'd be a nice warm-up act for South Africa & Australia.

It's white ball. Either 3 ODIs or 5 T20s, tacked on after the end of their Australia Test tour. I'm normally of the "There's Always Value in a Bilateral" school of thought, & if it's a T20 series they might have the T20WC in mind, but I'm of the view that, with Super Smash being entirely FTA for the first time, it needs to take centre stage during January, & that means all BCs need to be in it. Taking out the very guys who'd normally be the biggest SS drawcards for a white ball series that will instantly take the limelight won't help its profile at all. It's quite possible that it'll be nearing the finals in the 2nd half of January, so you'd be taking out star players near the playoffs. Personally, unless South Africa wants a white ball series, I'd keep January clear.
 
The Hutt Rec

The Hutt Rec

International Vice-Captain
The international calendar does look quite sparse next season, and after we had zero international cricket until about March this year I’d actually be quite keen for a Pakistan white ball tour at that time.
 
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RMBolton

School Boy/Girl Captain
The Hutt Rec said:
The international calendar does look quite sparse next season, and after we had zero international cricket until about March this year I’d actually be quite keen for a Pakistan white ball tour at that time.
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In fairness, the front end of the season is taken up by the WC (thank you Covid, otherwise it would've already happened by now) & the Bangladesh Tests. It's nice of them to come over here during the holidays. My main quibble is that Pakistan is scheduled to make a similar tour here in January '25, in the lead up to the Champions Trophy. To have another one the year before feels useless.

I grew very attached to SS last season, mainly as I had to watch every game for the threads over on Reddit. During that time, I came to the conclusion that it must become an integral part of the NZ home cricket package, but because it can't attract overseas stars (especially not now with SA20 & ILT20 on at the same time), our own stars need to be more available. For that reason, when possible (ie when there are no ICC events coming up) I'd keep January clear so BCs can play the bulk of SS instead of popping in & out. Also, I'd make sure it finishes before the end of January (but that goes a bit far into my "Armchair NZC" takes).
 
The Hutt Rec

The Hutt Rec

International Vice-Captain
It will have a lot more Blackcaps players than last year anyway, just because last year we were sending test and white ball squads to Pakistan and India, it seemed like half the players in the country were over there at some stages. Really tested the depth. A home white ball series will only take 12 or 13 out which is a bit more manageable.

Agree getting the Super Smash done by January is ideal though, it dragged on waaay too long last year. Perhaps to try and fill the season out since there wasn’t much else going on.
 
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RMBolton

School Boy/Girl Captain
Bahnz said:
The most important window for the supersmash is the last week before Christmas through to the first week after new years day. That's the time of year when people have the free time to sit down and watch a cricket game. By mid-late January most people have gone back to work.
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I agree there. That's about the time when you can afford to have it on every day. Once we get to mid January, I guess that's when they started making it weekends-only, helped by a few long weekends.

An idea I've had for a while is to try & maximise D/N timeslots to try & keep it going nearly every day instead of throttling it by reducing it to weekends only. I know it's difficult, because only ND (Bay/Seddon), CD (McLean), & Canterbury (Hagley) can host such games comfortably (unless Auckland host such games inside Eden Park & Wellington at the Cake Tin). Try to maximise the after work/evening family crowds (& hopefully TV friendly too). On weekends, you can afford more daytime games; keep them.

I noticed that Fridays tended to be mostly D/N timeslots. I'm basically proposing that for weekdays in general to keep momentum going through January, so it can be wrapped up before the end of the month (certainly by Auckland Anniversary).
 
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