This writer's first, albeit vague, memory of cricket at the Basin Reserve was from a TVNZ broadcast in 1983. New Zealand, in beige, were playing England, in powder blue. Lance Cairns, still in his pomp with the shoulderless Excalibur, entered to pinch-hit at No3.
He soon clobbered an off-spinner, either Geoff Miller or Vic Marks, with a shot that cleared the forest of pohutukawa and headed towards the Mt Victoria tunnel. The crowd went bananas, and cricket seemed a sport worth following.
Commentator Peter Williams, in a cricket version of Keith Quinn's most famous call, exclaimed: "Oh, oh, that one's at the airport."
Imagination might be taking hold here, but I think the replay showed the ball heading into the southern hemisphere's biggest roundabout and Billy Ibadulla, ever the dry sage, murmured, "There it goes, into the roundabout, one, two, three bounces."
It made for classic entertainment for a six-year-old, certainly better than anything Hanna-Barbera could deliver on What Now?
With an estimated 50,000 cars passing every weekday, the venue connects patrons to real life. Genuine work contributing meaningfully to the GDP goes on just outside the cricketing bubble.
The Basin also has admirers from further afield than cricket, namely the United Kingdom Roundabout Appreciation Society, which wanted to select the handsome circle as October in their 2014 calendar.
Westpac Stadium also deserves credit for permitting the ground's use today.
The stadium has a contract with New Zealand Cricket to stage all Wellington ODIs but an agreement was worked out which satisfied all parties, given Pakistan's ability to draw major crowds is nowhere near that of Australia, England, South Africa or India.
