Cricket World Cup diary: Winter arrives in New Zealand, but people have warmed up to tournament

The National’s Paul Radley is in Australia and New Zealand during the cricket World Cup. Here is his look back at his fifth week down under.

A general view of Wellington Regional Stadium during the World Cup match between New Zealand and the West Indies last week. Hagen Hopkins / Getty Images

Day 29

Wanganui

The excitability this home World Cup has prompted jars a little with the generally understated demeanour of the majority here.

The players themselves may be stars, but they have mostly tried to downplay their celebrity and keep to their usual routines.

The fact Trent Boult, the tournament’s leading wicket-taker, was spotted at his local post office makes the news, while Ross Taylor took a public bus to see his parents at their home near Wellington.

The Wanganui Chronicle, which services this small west coast town, will not be letting them get above their stations any time soon, by the looks of things.

The back page lead in today’s edition covers the denouement of the town’s 70s-and-over tennis tournament. The views of the cricket coach, Mike Hesson, ahead of the big quarter-final are relegated to the down page story instead.

Wanganui does not seem to go in for showiness much at all. One of its main tourist attractions is, after all, an elevator.

Day 30

Wanganui – Eastbourne

“Inspire a generation” was a slogan written for the London Olympics of 2012. Billions were spent on making sure that extravaganza caught the attention, Danny Boyle was enlisted to get the show off to a spectacular start, and the global audience was vast.

Cricket does not have those sort of funds – or perhaps just not the will – to spread the message far and wide. Still, though, this World Cup has been the prompt for an initiative aimed at primary and secondary school kids.

It is not obvious exactly what Smart Cricket is, although it is said to be a “downloadable multimedia resource” providing a “lasting legacy for education well into the future”.

The school kids are told that cricket is the greatest game in the world.

They could probably make their own minds up without all the chat, though.

During a miserable, cold day in Eastbourne, with the wind blowing in off the harbour, a group of boys not much older than 10 were just happy to be out of the classroom, playing a pick-up game of cricket for hours on end.

In this part of the world, there does not appear to be the need to preach to the converted.

Day 31

Eastbourne

Eastbourne is a small village at the end of the road which wraps around Wellington Harbour.

It is directly opposite the main city, on the other side of the water which opens out into the Cook Strait, which separates the North and South Islands.

Beautifully situated at the foot of a forested hill, it has million-dollar views across the bay to the capital.

This evening, though, it seems the locals are over the view – even though there is a spectacular fireworks show going on – as most are preferring to watch the Super Rugby game between the Hurricanes and Highlanders on their TVs instead.

It is labouring the point to suggest they love rugby in this part of the world. But news reports have been led today by the story of New Zealand-born referee, Steve Walsh, retiring. A referee leading the news? Exactly.

A man doing the late shift at the village store is not fussed, though. He has his laptop set up next to the till and is watching Wahab Riaz’s inspired display in Pakistan’s quarter-final against Australia.

He wants the Aussies to win, he says. He is an Indian immigrant.

Day 32

Eastbourne: N Zealand beat W Indies by 143 runs

Like a ship being decommissioned, the closing down of each stadium after it stages its final World Cup match has a melancholy feeling.

This time, it is Wellington saying farewell to 2015’s main event. Once the players and the 30,000 supporters have filed out after an epic day for New Zealand cricket, litter noisily flies around the aisles of the empty Cake Tin in the wind.

Out on the field, where umpteen records have just been broken by the rampant home side in their demolition of West Indies, staff are playing an impromptu game of cricket in the middle.

The Gatorade promotion staff do not hit it quite as far as Brendon McCullum and Chris Gayle, but they still savage the female bowler who is a tournament volunteer. No mercy.

Day 33

Eastbourne

The variable Wellington weather held off just long enough to allow the national team safe passage through to the semi-final, but it has closed in now.

When Martin Guptill provided a day of days for the nation’s cricket supporters yesterday, it was fine and clear.

Now, across the harbour from Eastbourne, the view of the hills and buildings of New Zealand’s capital city is fully impaired by mist and drizzle.

The World Cup caravan is moving north for one last slice of summer in Auckland, but winter has arrived in Wellington.

Still though, there are a few hardy people swimming in the ocean. They are quite clearly mad.

Day 34

Eastbourne – Auckland

Sat next to the political correspondent from one of the country’s leading television channels during the hour-long flight to Auckland.

Wherever John Key, the prime minister, goes, he generally follows. As such, he is in the process of looking into visas ahead a trip the premier has planned to the Middle East.

Before take-off, he fields calls about the news agenda, he is on his tablet – airplane mode – for much of the flight, reads the newspaper from cover to cover, and is back on his phone as soon as we land.

A busy man, clearly – yet he admits work will take a back seat when the Black Caps face South Africa in the semi-final. That perfectly reflects the prevailing mood. Productivity is expected to be low in the country’s most populated city tomorrow, as everyone downs tools to watch the big match.

“Sorry, boss …” reads the banner headline on the front page of the New Zealand Herald, next to a mock absence note.

To minimise the numbers of staff calling in sick, many work places are laying on extra TVs so they can watch the game.

Maybe New Zealand is totally in thrall to this competition after all.

Follow our sports coverage on Twitter @NatSportUAE