Two young cricket fans had the surprise of their lives when they returned to their Auckland home after a night away to find their front yard had been turned into a cricket pitch and five Black Caps were ready to play with them.
Sandringham brothers Kazik, aged 8, and Lukasz Swain, 10, won the pitch and the opportunity to meet Brendon McCullum, Mitchell McClenaghan, Martin Guptill, Ross Taylor, Daniel Vettori and bowling coach Shane Bond in the ANZ Field Your Dream promotion.
Their father, Andrew Swain, said the boys did not know they had won and were staying in a hotel while a landscaping team worked to transform their home's yard into an 18m turfed pitch, with nets, cricket gear and a bowling machine.
The boys and their father worked on a brief application stating their "cricket dream".
"When I saw all the gear and the Black Caps standing in front of our house I was pretty speechless," said Lukasz, who plays for the Cornwall Park Cricket Club Year 5 team and his brother, Kazik, for the Year 3 team.
