NZ Cricket 2008 Annual Awards Dinner

May I begin by greeting everyone in the languages of the realm of New Zealand, in English, Maori, Cook Island Maori, Niuean, Tokelauan and New Zealand Sign Language. 

Greetings, Kia Ora, Kia Orana, Fakalofa Lahi Atu, Taloha Ni and as it is the evening  (Sign)

May I specifically greet you: Don Neely, Alan Isaac and Justin Vaughan, President, Chairman and Chief Executive respectively of New Zealand Cricket; Distinguished Guests otherwise; Ladies and Gentlemen. 

As Patron of New Zealand Cricket, it was with pleasure that I accepted the invitation to attend the National Bank New Zealand  Cricket 2008 Annual Awards Dinner this evening.

I am another New Zealander for whom Cricket has been a matter of central interest for as long as I can remember.  An example is in March 1956 when, as a 12-year-old, I was among the crowd at EdenPark that saw New Zealand win its first test match.

New Zealanders had waited 26 years for that happy day.  That the defeated team, the legendary West Indies side, containing Everton Weekes, Garfield Sobers and Sonny Ramadhin, had already wrapped up the test series by winning the first three tests was, of course, quickly and conveniently forgotten by the New Zealand public.

While the significance of that achievement was also probably lost on me, the excitement of being one of the huge throng going on to the ground to congratulate the New Zealand heroes remains a sweet memory 50 years on. 

So, alas, does the grey day in March of the year before when New Zealand scored 26 at EdenPark:-  B Sutcliffe, 11 of those and GO Rabone, another 7.  The bowlers for England, RW Appleyard, 4 for 7; JB Statham, 3 for 9; FH Tyson, 2 for 10; JH Wardle, 1 for 0, adding to the misery.

In spite of character building moments such as those which have continued down the years to the last fortnight in the series against Bangladesh, New Zealand cricket continued in its popularity as the national game to follow as well as the backyard and beachside game of choice for thousands of our country's children.

I remain a devotees and am another who played cricket, avidly with more enthusiasm than skill and who has continued to follow the game and what happens in it.

I think as  someone of a legal background, there is something special about a game that can provide such arcane rules as (Law 36 - out leg before wicket) and which enables the maintenance of interest despite frustration, disappointment and dismay.  Perhaps there might be contemplated a wholesale rule change to replace the entire 42 laws, 186 sub laws, plus 43 notes with something phrased as sweetly and simply as the following:

"You have two teams, one out in the field and one in.  Each person that's in the side that's in, goes out and when he's out he comes in and the next batter goes in until he's out.  When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out.  Sometimes you get people still in and not out.  When both sides have been in, and out, including the not outs ..then that's the end of the game."

When appointed Governor-General in August 2006, Government House undertook a review of all vice-regal patronages, but the offer to be Patron of New Zealand Cricket seemed to be one that jumped off the page.

Despite occasional ups and downs with which we are all familiar, New Zealand Cricket has gone from strength to strength since that first test win 50 years ago.

That strength can be evidenced in a number of settings this year.  When I made the first Governor-General visit to India a few weeks ago, I was able to encounter the New Zealand A Team, which was playing in Hyderabad and to see a number of some of our country's "there or thereabouts" professional players under the stewardship of those wonderful stalwarts of the game, Glenn Turner and Dayle Hadlee.

In two or three weeks from now I will have the pleasure of watching the Wanderers Cricket Club match against the Governor-General's College XI at the Basin Reserve in Wellington and will see the latest crop of the Capital's best young players pit their skills against some of the game's "old hands." 

While the Blackcaps are the sport's major public face and the cornerstone of New Zealand Cricket's financial strength, the real strength of any sport lies in grassroots participation.

On that front, New Zealand Cricket's latest Annual Report reports that the sport is in good heart with, for the first time, more than 100,000 registered participants.  That is a mighty achievement and one of which everyone connected with the game can be rightfully proud.

Cricket today is very much a professional sport.  It  must compete with other codes for sponsorship, television viewers and spectators.  It requires an organisation and people with finely tuned business acumen and skills as well as knowledge of the sport.  It is also an international sport, with the sport being played in an increasing number of nations.

What this comment underscores is that while business and sponsorship are important, the sport will no have no future unless it continues to uphold the values of sportsmanship, particularly skill, strategy, team play, participation and leadership. 

These values are not only important for the game, but for our country as well.  As a 19th century New Zealand Speaker of the Legislative Council, Sir John Richardson, once said:- "where there is good cricket there will also be good citizens who will be a credit to their country."

To close I will quote my predecessor from half a century ago, Charles John Lyttelton, Viscount Cobham, a former President of the MCC, reflecting the significance of the values I have spoken of.  He told a cricket dinner in 1961:

"Every side likes to win, and it is futile hypocrisy to deny it.  One takes the field with the idea of outplaying one's opponents. But, in cricket at least, there is an unwritten law that one must never play up to the margin of the rules.  It is a game so terribly easily spoilt; men of mean spirit can make it wilt within half an hour, just as, conversely, the magnanimous gesture makes it flower in its full glory."

May I offer the view that New Zealand Cricket, and cricket in New Zealand, is in good heart.  Tonight at these awards we celebrate the achievements of the men and women who have not only personally succeeded, but also helped bring the sport in New Zealand to [quote] "flower in its full glory."

And on that note, I will close in New Zealand's first language Maori, by offering everyone greetings and wishing you all good health and fortitude in their endeavours.  No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou, kia ora, kia kaha, tena koutou katoa.