Category: ICC

Loving the Basin

Posted on by tjonescan

Today is Valentine’s Day. It’s the first day of the second Test between New Zealand and India at the Basin Reserve. And today is also the day of our Love the Basin event at the Basin Reserve.

Many people love the Basin Reserve as a cricket ground, but the Basin has been used for many things in its time, and people love it for many reasons. Here’s why fashion designer Laurie Foon says she loves the Basin:

Thanks for all the great work you are doing, please keep it up.

I love the Basin as I ride my bike and this is is always my mellow interlude before approaching the city or the busy Adelaide Road.

I often stop on the south side to west side to sit in the late evening sun. I do not want the noise or visual of the flyover.

But the Love the Basin event is taking place against a background of backroom deals: backroom deals about the future of world cricket, and as recent revelations by Wellington Scoop show, backroom deals between Wellington City Council, the Basin Reserve Trust and the New Zealand Transport Agency:

Conflicts of interest: a secret flyover Memorandum of Understanding and its three signatories

To mix sporting metaphors, cricket has become a political football. Today at the Basin, I hope to see a celebration of the game, and a celebration of the Basin Reserve.

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Basin Reserve Trust Cricket Witnesses Seriously Concerned By NZTA’s Plans

Posted on by tjonescan

I spent a very interesting couple of hours at the weekend reading the evidence of the cricket witnesses called by the Basin Reserve Trust for the forthcoming Board of Inquiry on the proposed Basin Reserve flyover.* You can find these statements online at http://www.epa.govt.nz/search-databases/Pages/nsp-proposals-details.aspx?ProposalNumber=NSP000026#

I expected this evidence to be full of reassurances about how the NZTA had cricket’s best interests at heart, but that is strikingly not the case. Here are some of the statements made by these cricket experts in their evidence:

Sir John Anderson, former Chair of NZ Cricket: “I consider that a failure to adequately mitigate the effects of the Proposal on the Basin Reserve could potentially affect the test match status of the ground.”

Peter Clinton, CEO of Cricket Wellington: “The proposed Basin Bridge will have a significant impact on the Basin Reserve. The Basin Bridge will impact the Basin Reserve in the following ways:
(a) Visual distraction for sportspersons;
(b) Loss of spectator enjoyment;
(c) Potential loss of ICC accreditation as an international cricket ground; and
(d) Impact on the Basin Reserve’s unique character and ambience.”

Martin Snedden, former New Zealand cricketer, sports administrator: “The Application [by NZTA] and the Evidence in Chief used inappropriately narrow criteria to determine how the view of traffic on the Basin Bridge might adversely impact the Basin Reserve.”

With the future of the Basin at stake, such statements should concern all cricket players, administrators and fans.

It’s also clear that the proposed Northern Gateway Building is far from a panacea for these problems, and that there are issues with its design and use – something that also became very clear when, at a meeting between submitters and the NZTA, Greg Lee of the NZTA was asked to explain and justify the design and cost of the Northern Gateway Building, and was unable to do either convincingly.

* Some witness statements may not be provided until later this week.