Henry and Simon Anderson with Matthew Leonard at the Black Caps versus West Indies ODI at Saxton Oval on Saturday. Photo: Phillip Rollo.

Nelson loves cricket

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Nelson Cricket’s biggest day has been deemed a massive success, with a sell out crowd of 5300 witnessing a first class Black Caps victory over the West Indies.

Everything from the venue, the crowd, the facilities and the result were given a big tick – with just the weather being the only groan as late afternoon rain resulted in a premature end with New Zealand given a 58 run win via the Duckworth Lewis Method. “There was a huge turnout, the wicket was good, everything proved to be as good or if not better than we had hoped,” says Nelson Cricket Association chairman David Leonard. “It was really, really important on a whole lot of levels that the game went ahead and we got a result so we are rapt about that.”

Tickets had sold out a week prior to the fixture but talks are already underway to lift the capacity to above 6000 people with the addition of more temporary seating.

Nelson has been granted three games for the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup and Saturday’s match was the region’s first chance to prove it deserved to be named as a host venue. But the overwhelming success in the height of the summer holidays has now given Nelson Cricket more confidence that it will be granted a three year deal with New Zealand Cricket meaning the Black Caps could return before the World Cup.

“We’d love to think the Black Caps see this as their home ground and want to develop a winning record here. We did a very quick debrief straight after the game but generally everybody is pretty happy. Hopefully we can have another ODI next year as well as the three Cricket World Cup games so I think next year will be significant.”

David says the crowd was well behaved, got into the game, and there were plenty wearing Tui t-shirts hoping to win $100,000 by catching a six with one hand. He admits the wait for food was excessive and that more toilets will be needed for future fixtures, but it was a learning curve and those problems should not occur again. “There are literally hundreds of things we’ve learnt; managing the crowd, servicing the crowd, the requirements of New Zealand Cricket, the requirements of media, we’ve learnt mountains.

“The wait for food was unacceptable and we do need more portaloos but they’re all things that are manageable and things we can deal with. I’ve watched the replay on TV and the ground looked amazing, the shots of the region were fantastic and I’m sure it was a huge boost for the region.”

Following the Black Caps’ record breaking win in Queenstown just days before, cricket fans were hoping for fireworks. While it was a more controlled display with Martin Guptill top scoring with 81 in New Zealand’s 285 opening innings, everyone got their money’s worth in the final ball with Corey Anderson smashing a six right over the embankment. In reply, West Indies were sitting at just 134/5 when rain stopped play in the 34th over, handing New Zealand the victory.