14 January 1997
Musical Barrage At Basin
Canterbury's Shell Cup team is likely to face a verbal and
musical barrage of equal intensity to the cricketing pressure
created by Wellington in today's final at the Basin Reserve.
In the past three weeks Martin Devlin has been the voice of
Wellington cricket's new entertainment package which has had the
crowd in stitches and left visiting teams fuming.
Devlin combines carefully selected songs and tongue-in-cheek
comments over the public address system intended to ensure Shell
Cup cricket can compete with other entertainment on offer.
However, that approach has inspired complaints from the likes of
New Zealand and Canterbury captain Lee Germon, Jeff Wilson, Otago
coach Vaughan Johnson, and most notably Central Districts captain
Mark Greatbatch during the Wellington-Central Districts match.
Devlin, who has the support of Wellington cricket chief executive
Rodney Moore, said players were being precious.
As Greatbatch strode to the wicket, Devlin noted over his booming
speakers that the Kiwi vice-captain had struggled to score runs
this season. Then he played the theme from "Mission Impossible".
Greatbatch made offensive gestures and mouthed obscenities to
Devlin when he was dismissed. Greatbatch then made a heated
complaint to Moore.
New Zealand Cricket chief executive Christopher Doig has
investigated and will not take action.
Devlin, a breakfast radio announcer with Channel Z, said
Wellington's opponents in the Basin final would know they were
not on their own turf.
"Canterbury is in for a rocket. We want to make sure that they
know they're playing away from home."
Songs chosen by Devlin and promotions company organiser Nick
Mills include "Get A Haircut" for Chris Cairns, "You're So Vain"
for Adam Parore, and "Smoke On The Water" for Matthew Hart, who
was one of three cricketers suspended for smoking cannabis while
on tour in South Africa.