Youth Cricket Academy

On Tuesday 27 November, New Zealand required an international standard venue on which to have a middle practice before their upcoming fixture against Graeme Smith's Proteas on Friday and the Youth Cricket Academy (YCA) had the infrastructure and quality cricket pitches to provide just that. The bomb squad came, saw and pronounced the venue safe. The rain was less decisive though, and while it made up its mind, an extensive array of covers were hauled on and off the pitch by the YCA coaches and ground staff, an annoying feature unique to the game of cricket. Jacob Oram and a team manager came at 11:00am to inspect the facilities, and casually remarked that they would be practicing that afternoon with a white ball. Thank you to Andrew, Carel, Reeze and Livingstone for endeavouring to get a hefty set of covers over the massive white Sight Screens. Fortunately, AD Carter and Peter Muzzell came to the rescue, providing the black shade cloth that was to be used on Friday night for the match against the Proteas at St. George's Park as a cover for the Sight Screens. The New Zealand cricketers arrived in their team bus at about 14:00 and got straight down to work with a stretch, game of touch rugby, soccer and various fielding drills before settling down to a middle practice. It was a typical Heatherbank wicket despite the rain; hard, fast and true for batting, with enough in it to keep the bowlers trying, provided they bent their backs and put in effort. It would have been interesting to see Shane Bond bowl on our wicket; however he picked up an injury earlier on the tour and was out for the remainder. The ground was packed with YCA coaches and pupils, autograph hunters, security guards, media personnel, ground staff and spectators all enjoying the cricket display. The Black Caps practiced for about four hours of which two were played in what could be termed: considerable rain. The batters faced the type of bowlers they would encounter in a match, with opening batters facing the quicker bowling, and the middle order facing a few quickies and then predominantly slower bowling. After they had finished their training they happily handed out autographs and posed for photos with YCA cricketers and adults alike. It must be said that the New Zealand cricket team were true gentlemen; patient with the little autograph hunters, polite, friendly and rather humble, although I guess losing every game on tour will do that to a team. This was their last middle practice prior to their match versus the Proteas at St. George's Park and they had not won a game on tour thus far. However due to the inspiration they gained from the boys at the YCA, they went on to beat the Proteas three days later to register their only win on tour, so perhaps we helped just a little too much.