Celebrating the Northern Māori Programme at Matariki

As Aotearoa celebrates Matariki, it is timely to note the contribution Māori players have made to Northern Districts Cricket (ND), and the contribution ND has made to Māori cricket.

Until the great wave of Māori urbanisation in the second half of the 20th century, less than 20% of Māori lived in urban centres where most cricket was played. It was the children of that first wave of rural-urban migrants that were then exposed to cricket at primary and secondary school in much greater numbers. Until the 1980s only eight identifiably Māori players had played first-class cricket in NZ. From the 1980s onward more and more Māori cricketers made their mark.

Roger Broughton (1980-86) and Mark Carrington (1981-87) are presumed to be the first players of Māori descent to play for ND, both products of Gisborne Boys High School. Since the 1980s there have been many more. Daryl Tuffey, Peter McGlashan, and Trent Boult all went on to represent the BLACKCAPS. Dion Bennett, Te Ahu Davis, Jono Boult, Tamati and Katene Clarke, Brad Leonard, Nathan Daley, Zak and Jake Gibson, Cody Andrews, Brandon Hiini, and Ben Pomare are on our list. Another ND product, Thorn Parkes, currently represents Otago, as did Ollie White.

Samantha Barriball, Ariana Te Wake, Rhiana Vincent, Kerry Anne Tomlinson, and Marama Downes are players of Māori descent to have represented the ND women’s team. While Central District’s Ocean Bartlett is a member of a well-known Gisborne whānau.

Further proof that Māori are indeed suited to cricket comes in a list of high achievers at international level – examples we can list Boult and Tuffey, Shane Bond, Adam Parore, Jesse Ryder, Suzie Bates, Rebecca Rolls, Maia Lewis, Sarah McGlashan, Leah Tahuhu and now Eden Carson. And we must absolutely not forget Ben Stokes! 

With 40% of NZ’s Māori population in its region, ND recognised in the early 2000s that we needed to be proactive. We saw the retention of talented young Māori players as being a major issue. We wanted to provide some specific Māori pathways to improve retention. The ND Māori men’s team was set up in the 2010/11 season. A Māori women’s team followed two seasons later.

The men’s team played its first game against a Waikato University team, in what has now become an annual fixture.

The men’s team toured to the Cook Islands in 2013, and the women followed suit in 2015 (and again in 2017). Regular fixture lists were established. Both teams now play in National Māori tournaments – in recent seasons NZ Cricket and the other MAs have followed ND’s example. NZC has since 2018 fielded NZ Secondary schoolboys and schoolgirls teams, and a number of ND players have benefited from these experiences, both playing and culturally.

Pat Malcon
ND and NZ Māori selector