Black Caps to play for 'Aotearoa'

The Black Caps will play for "Aotearoa", not "New Zealand", in their one-day international against Zimbabwe this Sunday. Photo / Brett Phibbs, NZ Herald

The Black Caps will play for "Aotearoa", not "New Zealand", in their one-day international against Zimbabwe in Harare this Sunday August 2.

NZ Cricket chief executive David White said the words "New Zealand" would be replaced by "Aotearoa" across the front of the players' shirts to mark the final day of Mãori Language Week.

The organisation has also used its NZ Post sponsorship of junior cricket to translate its resources for schools into te reo Mãori.

"NZ Cricket want to extend cricket's reach and make it more welcoming to communities not always closely aligned with the game," Mr White said.

The shirts the team will play in this weekend. Photo / Supplied

"It's something we haven't done particularly well in the past. We've been too one dimensional in our approach and especially in regard to addressing under-representation in certain communities. But we have to start somewhere."

He said the organisation consulted senior Mãori MPs about putting "Aotearoa" on the players' shirts. The move was a one-off at this stage but might be repeated.

"Who knows in the future?" he said. "If a match coincides [with Mãori Language Week] in the future there's every chance we can do it again."

Black Caps Trent Boult, Matt Henry, James Neesham and Ish Sodhi and White Fern player Natalie Dodd have all recorded messages in te reo Mãori to encourage new Mãori players.

NZ Post sponsorship manager Charles Ropitini said the Mãori-language teaching resource would be useful for kura kaupapa Mãori and other Mãori immersion classes. He believed it was a first for any mainstream sport.

"There are no sports that are running total-immersion apart from Mãori sports like waka ama," he said. "So it's a small step towards something that could become quite great, and I'm just thrilled that cricket is prepared to make an effort to do this."

Mr White said NZ Cricket had also made other moves to make cricket more accessible, such as distributing playing gear to 1700 primary and intermediate schools for the Cricket World Cup - a programme that will now be continued and extended eventually to secondary schools.