Cricket — real and fictional

Press, 2 August 1983, Page 17

Cricket — real and fictional

Highlights of the second cricket test — which was screened live last night — will be screened on One today between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. The live coverage displaced an episode of “Dallas” and that episode will be screened on One tonight, after “The Blue and the Grey.” Cricket will also feature on One tomorrow night — in fictional form. Lance Cairns will make his television acting debut in “Playing for Keeps,” an episode of “Jocko,” screen-, ing on One tomorrow night. Cairns, playing himself, is brought in by the opposition when it appears they have underestimated China’s cricketing abilities during the annual town versus country cricket match. China’s willingness to play is scorned until he reveals hidden talents, and

f opposition panic begins to set in . . . “Give it a heave, Lance Cairns” became a popular catch-phrase throughout New Zealand during last summer’s Benson and Hedges one-day cricket competition in Australia, and even more so during the three one-day home games against England. ' Cairns’s big hitting has become almost legendary, and now every time he goes out to bat for his country thousands of people expect him to hit sixes and fours. “Playing For Keeps” was shot before last summer’s successes, and Cairns and the rest of the New Zealand cricket team will still be in England when the episode screens on One tomorrow night, so there will be no way of knowing the reaction to their team-mate’s acting debut.