When Spark handed the broadcast rights over to TVNZ, the nation’s major free-to-air broadcaster, the cricket coverage also fell under the funding umbrella of Te Mangai Paho, the government’s Maori language agency.

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Additional elements of coverage on TVNZ have included the use of a Maori song by the band Dillastrate as the musical theme of the network’s cricket programming. A multilingual roving sideline reporter, James Tito, has also been part of the broadcast team at matches.

“Te reo Maori is an official language in Aotearoa New Zealand. It’s important to us that te ao Maori (or the Maori worldview) is reflected and celebrated in what we deliver to our viewers,” a TVNZ spokesperson said. “We incorporate te reo Maori across our news coverage, entertainment programming and we’re also weaving it through our live sports broadcasts – and that now includes our live cricket coverage.

“We’ve been sharing the te reo translations for parts of the game through our graphics, our commentators naturally use the language in calling the match, we have waiata reo music (traditional music) and te reo also features in the roving reporting that accompanies the games.

“We’re acutely aware our coverage is broadcast around the world (Bangladesh, Pakistan, Australia, England, South Africa). We think this is an opportunity to showcase the language on a global stage and celebrate Aotearoa’s unique multiculturalism.”

For its part, Cricket New Zealand remains bullish about the need to reflect the nation’s Indigenous heritage in language, planning and funding, ignoring the complaints of what it describes as a small minority.

“We’ve done quite a bit of work over the last few years on how we approach both the Maori population and people involved in cricket who have Maori heritage, and also our approach to the inclusion of Maori language,” NZC digital broadcast and content manager Ben Mackey said.

“It’s something we’ve made progress on and it is still a work-in-progress. On the broadcast you’ll see small inclusions of te reo which are in common use across New Zealand and often in common use across broadcast content here.

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“We’ve also included te reo in our venue signage, so when you’re at the ground, watching, you’ll see most of the big screen assets and LED assets are bilingual, and a wicket is displayed to also say wikiti. Then there’s Wha for four, and Ono for six.”

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