Basin Goings On

The “Finance Com­pa­ny Implo­sion” has seen sev­er­al name changes for our beloved Basin Reserve over the past few months. It is now known offi­cial­ly as the Allied Nation­wide Finance Basin Reserve and the ground improve­ments con­tin­ue at good pace. Between the end of the the rug­by sea­son and Labour Week­end the wick­et block and prac­tice areas were re-laid and improved drainage tech­nol­o­gy installed. The R. A. Vance Stand is hav­ing a new view­ing plat­form built at the back for the media and, I’m guess­ing, to also improve tele­vi­sion cam­era angles from the North­ern (Or J. R. Reid Gate) end of the ground.

Mean­while, a new edi­fice is being erect­ed beside the ven­er­a­ble old (actu­al­ly crap) score­board at the South­ern End. Any ideas what this will be? It looks like a new replace­ment or addi­tion­al score­board or a big screen (or some com­bi­na­tion).

I walk through the Basin every day and it is look­ing a pic­ture — the relo­ca­tion last year of the war memo­r­i­al to the top of the bank was a splen­did move. This sum­mer we have a vis­it from Bangladesh (rec­om­men­da­tion: don’t buy a five-day-pass) for a Test Match from Jan­u­ary 12 and Eng­land (hence all the media improve­ments) from March 13.