Indoor cricket interest thriving

Press, 24 April 1987, Page 32

Indoor cricket interest thriving

Indoor cricket, a condensed form of outdoor cricket, now boasts more players than its parent sport. Indoor cricket plays organised games six days a week and "caters for every kind of person,” said Garry Gardner, the general manager of the Howzat indoor cricket centre. It is available to both the serious sportsperson and social players. Eight players make up a team and full team participation is assured. Each of the eight team members bats for four of the 16 overs, and then bowls two overs. The court size is approximately 29 metres by 11 metres, and the net height ranging up to four metres. Players use a rubber ball with a leather casing which fortunately is not as hard as an outddor ball. With eight fielder? and two batsmen within the limited court space, the game is fast and the 11 metre dash between creases is not easy for the batsmen. Indoor cricket has been criticised by outdoor cricketers. “A lot of outdoor coaches do not like promising young players to > play indoor cricket. There is no difference in the, bowling technique, but batsmen tend to play across the line,” said Mr Gardner. Sponsorship plays a major role in indoor cricket but potential sponsors, and increasingly, the established sponsors, are discouraged by a continued lack of coverage, commented Mr Gardner.

Many well known sports personalities play indoor • cricket. Doug Bruce, the. former All Black, and more recently promoted to the prestigious position, as the Canterbury rugby coach said: “Indoor cricket is good exercise and a short sharp game.” Craig Adair, the former New Zealand cyclist whose business commitments interfere with his training was attracted to indoor cricket because of his interest in schoolboy cricket and the comparatively short 80 minute duration of the game. “It is the only team sport I know of that’s a real team game — everyone has to bat and bowl,” he said. Indoor cricket is renowned as a great spectator sport. More than 600 people, chanting vigorously, watched the game between Australia and New Zealand in 1985. The New Zealand indoor cricket team will tour Australia in May, and although it succumbed to the Australians in the 1985 game, New Zealand now has more strings to its bow. The two New Zealand organisations, the association and the federation, who formerly had no connections, will be combining for the first time to produce the best team. “New Zealand learnt a lot from Australia, and the ganie is a more specialised and. positional game now,” said Mr Gardner, who captained the 1985 side. “Australia was faster and fitter than us in 1985,” he added.

By

DIANA LESLIE