Cricket Wellington boss Gavin Larsen believes the Basin Reserve could be sold out within the next 24 hours after “stunning” opening day sales for Sunday’s earthquake charity game featuring Shane Warne. The spectator-friendly ground has a capacity of 8000 and nearly half those tickets were snapped up for the Twenty20 game before Larsen went home last night.
“We’ve been blown away by the level of interest and I’d be very surprised if it wasn’t a sellout,” Larsen said. “The ground was recalibrated three years ago and the capacity is 8000, which I get the feeling we are going to reach a lot quicker than we thought.”
The big names continue to be unveiled by organiser Stephen Fleming. All Blacks Richie McCaw and Conrad Smith are the latest to lend their support, the pair confirmed as umpires for the match between the Canterbury Legends XI and Wellington Legends XI. Fleming said the All Blacks pair would rotate umpiring stints with actors Martin Freeman (Bilbo Baggins) and Mark Hadlow (Harry in King Kong)…British actor James Nesbitt has been attached to the Wellington lineup as coach, pitting him against Russell Crowe, who Fleming snapped up as Canterbury coach. More
