D'Arcy Waldegrave: I'm almost done with cricket

I'm almost done. Almost. Cricket has taken clear aim at its foot with a loaded shotgun. The trigger finger is itchy. And it's starting to piss me off.   

I love cricket; it was one of the few sports I was vaguely good at. Vaguely. I played for years at a low level with varying degrees of success. The team Dave Lambie and I started, Team Boon, always looked to finish mid-table. Win some, lose some, fight manfully, and play like clowns from time to time. We set up camp before every game: picket fences, chilly bins full of frothies, score board, ezy up, you know, the joyous extras. We wore beige long before the Beige Brigade, we had an elaborate and brutal fines system. We even had donkey rides once, provided by the Burnside club who played in the same spirit as Boon did, and I believe still do.   

In short, we were cricket. We represented (in an odd way sure) the heart of the community game. Took it seriously enough, but never so seriously that it deteriorated into a 40 over event in the Octagon. It was about fun, comradery, banter, failure, success, heartache, joy, and a touch of exercise – an event that we all looked forward to every Saturday throughout the season.   

The core of the game. Where most cricketers sit. The beating heart.  

It's like this up and down the motu. Men, women, kids. These are the players that are being left in confusion by the antics of the power brokers at the top of the game here.   

New Zealand Cricket. Their board. The NZ20 league hierarchy. The disgruntled former players and administrators. 

I must commend NZC for putting up their President and Chair for interviews, but really, where the hell was that six months ago?  

NZ20? Crickets. The ex-admin and players? The odd sternly worded email and a spokesperson. Love you Richard Petrie, but is that all?  

This extended pie fight between these clowns has left them covered in custard. Did anyone take any notes during the Netball NZ no-comment circus? Plainly not.  

You're losing the faith of the people that really matter – the great cricket playing unwashed from schools and clubs up and down New Zealand.  

Sadly, it's been a demonstrable case of my favourite inverted saying.  

Don't just do something, stand there.   

We all deserve better.