The return of one-day int'l cricket to the Basin Reserve in January is a "step closer after Westpac Stadium officials agreed to a collective effort" to help bring more int'l matches to Wellington, according to Mark Geenty of STUFF. It means the 8,000-capacity Wellington Basin is a "New Zealand Cricket rubber stamp away from hosting Pakistan in mid-January, its first ODI in 11 years." Cricket Wellington CEO Peter Clinton met on Monday with NZ Cricket CEO David White, Wellington City Council CEO Kevin Lavery and Westpac Stadium CEO Shane Harmon. Clinton said, "There is a collective [that] will to put together a proposal to NZC to secure Wellington city as many top level matches as we can get in the next three years. The real opportunity is if we go back with a proposal which allows us to utilize both Westpac Stadium and the Basin for those inbound tours and those matches we think most appropriately fit those two venues." A Pakistan ODI in Wellington would "struggle to draw 10,000 to the stadium, which makes the Basin a more appealing prospect." White: "We don't want to play ODIs in stadiums that are a quarter full. It's not good for anyone -- the players, the public and the stadiums. It doesn't look great from a broadcast point of view" (STUFF, 6/8).
