Mark Richardson: Boxing Day deserves Basin

New Zealand is in a pickle but at least they have got themselves in a pickle in front of a very good Basin Reserve crowd.

On the first day the bleachers and embankment were all but full and yesterday they were full.

Throw in the fine weather and it has been two days of test match atmosphere that The Basin reserves for the Wellington faithful who must surely pine for the return of the Boxing Day test.

It's hard to call the Boxing Day test traditional, having only started in this country in 1998 and been played five times.

However, in that time for no other reason than it fell on Boxing Day, it quickly earned the "traditional" tag and so when taken away got the expected cries of foul play. The "tradition" was broken by the ever-growing threat to test cricket in general - known as commercial realities.

The lure of the dollar was too much for New Zealand Cricket to overlook and the holiday atmosphere Boxing Day provides would be better used in the pursuit of money by staging a one-day match in Auckland.

In later years, the commercial enticement of Twenty20 has prevailed to see the Boxing Day entertainment reduced to cricket in its shortest form.

There were a few unavoidable realities that counted against the traditional test, with the fact that it lasts five days being one.

NZC argue that while the gate on Boxing Day itself was substantial and justifiable, subsequent days saw a dramatic drop-off.

Then there's the time of year. Boxing Day comes at the stage of the season that sees the arrival of the first tourists, generally the weaker of the two nations invited here to play.

The final Boxing Day test against Pakistan was not strong enough to make up for the damage Zimbabwe and Bangladesh did to the cricketing spectacle in the previous two years.

It's hard to argue against that but when crowds roll out in force on fine Wellington days in April and the park looks a picture, one pines once more for the Boxing Day test.

Surely the popularity of Twenty20 and the versatility its three hour duration provides means it could generate the same sort of crowd regardless of what day it is played.

Thus you can gain the financial benefit Twenty20 provides while still giving us purists and traditionalists our Boxing Day bash at The Basin.

The last two days, and even with the Black Caps struggling, have shown if you can get reasonable opposition, you will get a good test match crowd at Wellington.

Twenty20 may be the saviour of test cricket the day after Christmas because there's a financial double whammy up for grabs.

A good test turnout on Boxing Day at The Basin combined with an any old time of the year turnout for a Twenty20 in Auckland equals excellent revenue.

As for the current pickle our cricket team has found themselves in, isn't it a little ironic that they are being outplayed in the conditions they said they wanted all along? Give us a good pitch but one that has a little more in it for the seam bowlers, they said.