Northern Districts on front foot in fight for patrons

Drinking a cold beer on a hot day at the cricket is one of life's simple pleasures. Photo / Neville Marriner

Northern Districts deserve a bouquet for trying to entice patrons to cricket matches over the holiday period.

Their only error was pitching the alcohol allowance too high at a dozen cans or plastic bottles, which made the antennae of police and vendors twitch.

Surely compromise could have been reached at half a dozen, which seems reasonable over the course of a day.

The move offered a chance to minimise what can be extortionate costs once fans are captured within the stadium. For example, last summer a burger, fries and drink combo cost $17 at the Auckland-Canterbury Twenty20 match at Eden Park.

Fortunately ND's other ventures - umbrellas for shade, food and non-alcoholic drinks of any quantities - passed muster.

There's a case that fans should be capable of enjoying a game of cricket without alcohol but not every day is as entertaining as Friday, when Brendon McCullum lashed Sri Lanka to all parts of Hagley Oval. Drinking a cold beer on a hot day under shade amid
convivial company can be one of life's simplest pleasures. Taking beer into a ground does not make you a drunkard.

ND's move sought to treat punters as mature adults. Presumably they would have increased security as a compromise. Another alternative would have been to create
alcohol-free zones so fans could choose whether to tread into vice-laden territory.

Conversely, punitive booze measures have led to ingenious methods of skulduggery.

Feats such as burying kegs on embankments, injecting watermelons with vodka or hollowing out loaves of bread are well-documented.

The television show Pulp Sport once devoted a segment to the task. Highlights included smuggling booze in via a pram, Pringles chip containers and, in a brazen coup de grace, a pallet.

Authorities should note Lord's boasts "the only international cricket venue in the world where spectators can bring alcohol into the ground".

Quantities are limited to two pints of beer or one 750ml bottle of wine per spectator. Further amounts are confiscated, along with any spirits.

Patrons, at least in this writer's experience, treat this rule with common sense. As a citizen, there's nothing like being respected rather than nannied.

Perhaps there are fears New Zealand's supposed binge-drinking culture would stymie such liberalism. A quick way to find out would have been through the two fixtures at Mt Maunganui at the height of the holiday season.

As things stand, we'll never know.