Mike Harvey: Christchurch Metro Cricket GM on the beginning of the cricket season and growth in team numbers

The smell of freshly cut grass, the sound of leather on willow, and cucumber sandwiches signal the start of the cricket season. 

Mike Harvey, General Manager of Christchurch Metro Cricket, caught up with Lesley Murdoch for a chat about the beginning of the season and the growth in team numbers across the board. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We all know this time of the year looks gorgeous
around christ Church with all the blossom and the budding
the camellias, the rhodos, which does signal that summer is
not far away. And in a week's time it'll be
the first day of club cricket. And Mike Harvey, who
is the general manager of christ Church Metro, joins us
once again. Mike, how's it all looking.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yeah, good morning, Leslie, and good morning to all the listeners. Yeah,
a lot of buzzy work's been happening around the grounds
by the Crochet City Council and the club grounds folk,
and pleased to say that things are looking in very
good shape for the season to start next week.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
I am assured that you have been working hard in
the off season getting around the clubs seeing what they
look like in terms of numbers.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah, we've been doing that, and obviously they work really
hard to help grow the game, and we're pleased to
report that we've had about an extra twelve teams joining
the competitions this year. So the main growth areas have
been what we call sort of Division two men, which
is the grade that plays all the three format that
we offer t twenty one day and forty five overs

(01:03):
they play. We've had some good growth in our T
twenty social grades, so that's sort of nine a side
T twenty on a Saturday afternoon, and also some more
numbers coming into the female grades, so some positive news
coming out all around. With the team entries, is.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
It still open to getting more entries or.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
Is that also No, We're never going to turn people
away who want to play cricket, Leslie. I'm sure we
can find some spots for people down through the grades
if there still teams wanting to get together, and as
well as that, we have twilight options on a Monday
night for social groups, so if there are people out
there still thinking about wanting to get a cricket team together,

(01:41):
we'll be able to fit them in somewhere for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Oh sounds so fantastic.

Speaker 2 (01:44):
You've got enough grounds, Well, that's going to be the
big question, Leslie. That the grounds folks have been working
really hard obviously during this last month and the gap
between the winter codes and some are getting underway just
to do a lot of the grounds repairs and start
rolling and marking and mowing the cricket pitch. So we
do also rely quite heavily on our network of artificial

(02:04):
pitches that if people go around on the grounds, they'll
see those sitting in the middle. So we hope we'll
have enough grounds, but with the growth in numbers that
there's going to be a stretch, particularly at the start
of the season with one or two grounds still out
for the first month.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
And are you predicting any more artificials to go in.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
Yeah, that is part of our sort of strategy that
we're working on with the city council, Leslie. Because preparing
cricket pitches is quite an expensive exercise. It does take
up a lot of resource. You do need machinery, so
putting in an artificial does actually save quite a bit
of money in the long term, and it does provide
that sort of consistent surface. And so looking at some

(02:43):
of the lower grade that they tend to play a
bit more an artificial And we're working on the council
with the council on getting some more in a round
christ Church.

Speaker 1 (02:51):
Oh, good stuff. You talked earlier about maybe some more
women's teams. That's good news.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
Yeah, it is. So we've had some growth of the
woman grades. I think sort of four or five years
ago we had about fifteen female teams and now we're
up to over thirty. So it's great testaments all the
work that's being done in the clubs and good to
see the bulge of players coming through from junior cricket
into youth and now to adults. So that's a real positive.

(03:17):
And as a result of that, we've actually opened up
a new grade this year called the Women's Championship and
that's looking to get the next tier of premier players
a bit better prepared for that step when they do
make it into the premier competition and making a good,
hard competition for that next group. So it's a real positive.
You know, a few years ago we're talking about sort

(03:38):
of merging grades and just trying to do her best
to get through the season. But with that growth, we've
now got a new grade starting to help with that
transition of younger players in the premier years.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
Oh it sounds fantastic. And you've got your new Women
and Girls lead in place.

Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yes, where we welcome Kellie Bodger. She's working for Canterbury
Cricket as the Woman and Girls Lead. She's previously with
Mainland Netball so has some great experience in the female
sport as a coach, developer and also an administrator, so
it's been great to welcome her along and in her
first couple of weeks and the job has just been
sort of getting around and meeting as many people as possible,

(04:13):
so she'd been very busy and we look forward to
her impact over the season and beyond.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
Fantastic And when do you hear about the schools their numbers?

Speaker 2 (04:23):
The schools play actually play over a calendar year, so
they kind of start and turn one and just carry
on and they finish their season sort of late November
early December, so that their new mustering for the new
season won't happen until January, so it will be then
when we get a bit of a handle on the
youth numbers. Yes, so we'll wait to see then how

(04:44):
they go.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
Oh, fantastic, and you've got enough umpires, etc.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
Yeah, we do have some good growth in the umpires
as well. We've had a couple of former umpires who'd
left town coming back, so we certainly cover the Premier men,
Premier women, and some of that championship grade for men
women as well with umpires, so they work hard. They've
been doing a lot of training over the last sort
of month we've been running some community umpiring sessions. We've

(05:09):
had close to two hundred people coming along who are
self umpiring games on a Saturday, so that helps them
improve their knowledge and have a better experience in those
games as well. So the umpires are certainly on the
up and up, and it's great to see that the
others a strong demand and interest in that as well.
And the scoring, yeah exactly.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
Oh well, it sounds really positive and we can only
hope that that Easterly stays away for those Balmi Saturdays
so that everybody can get out and enjoy it and
the social cricket that happens during the week. Good job,
good luck. I mean it looks as though you've got
a spreadsheet, a bit of a night new spreadsheet, but anyway,
good luck, and I know that there'll be people loving
the game.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
Will all fall into place, Leslie, fingers crossed, and we
look forward to the season ahead, and thanks for your support.
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