Digital streaming and free to Air services take cricket to more New Zealanders than ever before

A total of 1.86 million viewers watched six matches broadcast live on free to air TVNZ while more than 240,000 watched one of New Zealand Women’s game against Australia Women this year on the digital streaming platform of Spark Sport. These numbers are just a glimpse of what has been achieved as this year turned out to be the best in terms of cricket viewing ever since broadcast emerged in the island nation.

This success has filled Spark Sport with enthusiasm as it has achieved something that had never been done before in just the first year of its six-year broadcast deal with New Zealand Cricket. Digital streaming is being considered a groundbreaking addition to cricket viewing "which is taking cricket to not only more Kiwis but demographics of New Zealanders previously lost to the game".

Head of Spark Sport, Jeff Latch believes that since almost half of its customers are people below 34 years, the increasing number shows that the game is being consumed by the youth on the go, which is a good sign for any sporting nation. "It shows that New Zealand households are embracing streaming, which is consistent with the global experience, in which it is now the norm," he said about the increased numbers of digital streaming.

While the number of vies of highlights snapshots increased, Test cricket and Super Smash and Women’s Super Smash, the domestic T20 tournaments of the country along with Test cricket also saw a huge rise in viewership. However, the most viewed game remained one of the T20Is during the Australia series which attracted 1.24 million viewers.

"We're hugely encouraged," said David White the CEO of NZC while talking about the latest positive results. "The production was professional; the look and feel were fresh and appealing - it was everything we were hoping for,” he added.

White further went on to establish the increasing popularity of cricket by saying that the game is being picked up by more youth every year. "On top of the increase in viewership, our latest census is also indicating a significant increase in the number of New Zealanders playing cricket - including a 12% increase in the number of female participants, and a nine per cent increase in the number of males.”

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Shiv Sunder Das appointed India Women’s batting coach

Former India batsman Shiv Sunder Das has been appointed as the batting coach of the Women’s team ahead of their England tour. Das, who previously served as the head coach of the India Women’s A team and Emerging Women’s team in 2019-20, will assist recently appointed coach Ramesh Powar in the team’s endeavour on the tour. Das, who played 34 Tests and four ODIs for the national team between 2000 and 2002, was recommended by Indian Cricket head Rahul Dravid, who was also in charge of the 43-year-old’s last attachment with National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bangalore. While the fielding coach in Abhay Sharma stays put in his place, bowling coach Narendra Hirwani would not tour with the side, as the head coach Powar is more than capable enough to play that role. Rajkuvardevi Gaikwad, the former Chief Selector of Baroda, has been made manager of the side for the tour. All the players and support staff combined, which must be less than 30 in number, will depart with the Men’s contingent on June 02 after spending at least two weeks in quarantine in Mumbai. The players have been asked to reach their Mumbai destination latest by May 20.

Explosive opener Shefali Verma working on leaving the ball for debut Test against England Women

Rising in stature for her explosive batting style with every game she plays, India women teen sensation is working to perfect another aspect of her game as she is preparing for a Test match against England Women later this year. She is working on developing her batting style and stance to suit in the longest format and improve in the most critical element of batting in Tests— the ability to leave the ball. In an interview with ESPNcricinfo, Verma said that all formats offer valuable lessons and given she will be debuting in two of those formats (ODIs, and Tests), she would be looking forward to grasping as much learning as possible. "Women are getting to play their first Test in seven years. I have been given the chance, so my aim would be to learn from that Test match as much as I can about choosing the right balls to play, staying on in the middle as long as possible. All formats - ODIs, T20Is, and Tests - have different experiences and lessons to offer, so I would be looking forward to learning from both the ODI and Test formats,” Verma said to ESPNcricinfo. Expressing her feelings after getting a maiden call ups for both the ODIs and Tests, Verma said that she too like others felt good about the opportunities coming her way. She is eager to prove her worth in the longer formats by scoring runs for India Women over the tour of England. "Whenever I get a chance like this, I look out for opportunities to play matches so that I am able to prove myself and my style of play and go on to build a good career for myself. Everyone feels good after getting their maiden call-ups, and I felt good, too. My goal would be to make sure I score well for my team,” Verma added. Shefali Verma burst onto the scenes after her aggressive batting at the top of the order for India Women in the ICC Women T20 World Cup played last year in Australia.

New Zealand workhorse Neil Wagner stays aware to opportunities against England before WTC final

There is a lot of hype building up for the inaugural World Test Championship final to be played between India and New Zealand and it has somewhat engulfed the upcoming Test series between New Zealand and England which otherwise would have attracted a lot of hype and anticipation. However, the fact that there are two Test matches and a series to be won against England at their home is not lost on any of the Blackcaps squad member heading to England. Before leaving for England, one of the chief architects of New Zealand’s journey into the WTC final—Neil Wagner, outlined that the Blackcaps will not be taking the series against the hosts as just a build-up series leading up to the WTC final and instead the series holds a separate special place for the side. "We're not going to treat these two Test matches against England just as warm-ups (before the WTC final). I know for a fact we're going to get out there and pride ourselves the way we've been playing Test cricket and we want to win Test matches for New Zealand,” Wagner said to reporters at the Auckland airport while leaving for England. Wagner also pointed out that the early arrival in England due to Covid-19 measures and pre-series preparation camp in Lincoln would serve them well going into the first Test starting June 02. Wagner said that on earlier tours Blackcaps did not use to get ample opportunity to train with the duke ball before facing the stiff task of adapting to it which is not the case this time as they have been practising with the duke ball for some time in a camp in Lincoln. "It's been quite nice, it's obviously got different characteristics to the Kookaburra. The way we've been training for the last while is something we didn't always have in the past, having the facilities and having a marquee up and getting a number of trainings in before going to England. On tours in the past you rock up there and you've only got a couple of trainings and maybe one head out with the Dukes ball before the first Test and with that you can find yourself a little bit behind,” Wagner added. Neil Wagner makes a formidable quartet of bowlers for New Zealand along with Tim Southee, Trent Boult, and Kyle Jamieson. Wagner holds the number tree rank on the ICC Rankings for bowlers and has scalped 32 wickets from seven Test matches that were played under the umbrella of the World Test Championship at a phenomenal average of 22.5 runs per wicket.

Cricket Australia reaches out to Cameron Bancroft, seeks 'new information' on Cape Town Test

Comments made by Cameron Bancroft about having wider knowledge pertaining to the ball-tampering affair in the Cape Town Test of 2018 has created quite a bit of buzz in the Australian cricket ranks. And now, Cricket Australia's head of national teams, Ben Oliver, has confirmed that the integrity unit headed by Rebecca Murray has reached out to Bancroft to ask if he knows something more than he told at the time of investigation and that if he has something more to add. Oliver said that as it has been said often that Cricket Australia is willing to listen to more and more ‘new information’ and hence Cameron Bancroft has been contacted by the integrity unit. HE said that the unit will wait for his response before coming to any conclusion. "I think we've maintained all the way through that if, if anyone had any new information relating to that incident that we've encouraged people to come forward and discuss that with our integrity unit. In this particular case, our integrity team have reached out to Cam again extending that invitation to him if he does have any, any new information. We'll wait to see his response on that, we haven't had had a response. But in saying that we're operating on different time zones," Oliver said on Monday, May 17. Oliver also dismissed allegations that Cricket Australia tried to sweep sandpaper gate under the carpet and did not launch a comprehensive investigation for an issue that many former cricketers say has embarrassed the culture and legacy of the country. He said there was a "There was obviously a thorough investigation into that, to that incident. There were actions taken on the back of that and then since that time, everyone who's been involved in the team has worked incredibly hard to rebuild confidence and to ultimately sort of aspiring to make Australians proud of the Australian cricket team. So from that point of view that processes have taken place,” Olliver added. Former players such as Michael Clarke and Adam Gilchrist have voiced their opinions on reopening the sandpaper gate following Bancroft’s assertion that bowlers must have been aware of the ball conditions in the Cape Town Test.