The Basin Reserve, commonly referred to as the Basin and also known as the Cello Basin Reserve for sponsorship reasons, is a cricket ground in Wellington, New Zealand. It is used for test matches, and is the main home ground of the Wellington Firebirds first-class team. The Basin Reserve is the only cricket ground to have listed status with Heritage New Zealand, in recognition of being the oldest first-class cricket ground in the country.England Cricket legend W. G. Grace remembered at New Zealand Cricket Museum Historically, the ground has also been used for events other than cricket, such as association football matches, concerts and cultural events.
The New Zealand Cricket Museum is located in the Museum Grandstand. It houses cricket memorabilia and a reference library. It opened in 1987 and was relaunched in 2021.
The Basin Reserve is also a very large roundabout which forms a busy traffic intersection.
Location
The Basin Reserve is two kilometres south of the Wellington CBD at the foot of Mount Victoria. Government House, St Mark's Church School, and Wellington College are across the street to the south of the Basin. At the eastern end of the Basin is the Mount Victoria Tunnel, which increased traffic around the Basin Reserve after it was built in 1931.
The Basin Reserve is also surrounded by numerous other Wellington landmarks, including Mount Cook Barracks, the National War Memorial and the former Dominion Museum. The Basin Reserve is the intersection point for the Wellington suburbs of Mount Cook, Newtown and Mount Victoria.
Establishment and development
The area that is now the Basin Reserve was originally a swamp or lagoon, part of a large wet swampy area which extended almost to the harbour and west past Tory Street, fed by the Waitangi Stream from Newtown. The site was surveyed by William Mein Smith in 1840, with a view to deepening the Basin and connecting it to the sea by a canal to create an alternative mooring place, with warehouses and factories along the proposed canal which would run between Cambridge and Kent Terraces along the line of the stream: an 1841 map names the area as 'Proposed Basin and Canal'. The land was set aside as the Basin Reserve and the Canal Reserve. However, the 1855 Wairarapa earthquake uplifted the area nearly and partially drained the swamp.
Sport, particularly cricket, was a vital part of the mostly-English community's way to relax, but no land had been allocated by the city planners for recreational reserves. Areas such as the Te Aro flat provided small spaces for matches, but the colonists wanted more land for recreational use. The matter became dire as buildings began to be erected on the limited flat land available in hilly Wellington. After the 1855 earthquake, influential citizens seized the chance in 1857 to suggest that the new land raised at the Basin Reserve be drained and made into a recreational reserve and cricket ground.Neely, D., Romanos, J. (2003). The Basin – An Illustrated History of the Basin Reserve. Canterbury University Press. The Wellington Provincial Council accepted the proposal and on 3 February 1863 prisoners from Mount Cook Gaol began to level and drain the new land. The swamp was drained by September and a fence and hedges were placed around the entire area. However, massive population influxes from 1863 to 1866 (caused mostly by Parliament being moved to Wellington) hampered construction on the Basin Reserve as workers were pulled to other areas.
After a council meeting on 11 December 1866 the Basin Reserve became Wellington's official cricket ground. The cricketers soon organised drainage and other improvements to the ground. No cattle or horses were allowed in the ground and only small hedges and shrubs were allowed to be planted so as not to hamper cricket games. Soon after, on 11 January 1868, the first game of cricket was played, although the ground had numerous stones and thistles on it, which the umpire later apologised for as some players got injured. Although it was the opening day, no ceremony or music was played, nor was the opening advertised with banners. As late as 1871, the Basin Reserve grounds were still extremely soft, with small pools of swamp water and various weeds and shrubs sprouting over the fields. In late 1872, horses were used to level the playing field and this greatly improved the conditions.
Many further improvements were made in the following years. In the early 1880s an open drain through the middle of the Basin Reserve was culverted, which greatly increased the usable space. In the late 1970s the ground was reoriented and made into an oval, embankments were built, a new scoreboard was installed and the RA Vance Stand was constructed.
Grandstands Soon after cricket began at the Basin Reserve, Highland Games were organised by the Wellingtonian Caledonian Society, whose headquarters was the Caledonian Hotel just to the south of the Basin. The first grandstand at the Basin Reserve was built by the Caledonian Society in 1868, and sold to Wellington City Council in 1881. The Caledonian Stand deteriorated over time, and in 1925 it was demolished and replaced by a pavilion that is now known as the Museum Stand.
The Museum Stand was officially opened on 17 October 1925. It could seat 1300 people, and featured dressing rooms with hot and cold water, a tearoom with a kitchen, and ladies' toilets. In 1986 Wellington City Council approved the establishment of a cricket museum in the Museum Stand. In the wake of the Canterbury earthquakes in 2010 and 2011, in 2012 the Museum Stand was closed after being declared earthquake-prone. The stand was strengthened and refurbished in 2019, with the work winning an architectural award in 2022. It reopened with a capacity of 994 seats for the Black Caps test against India in February 2020. The pavilion has been a Category II registered Historic Place since 1982.
In 1980 the RA Vance Stand, named for cricketer Bob Vance, was completed to the north of the Museum Stand as part of a major redevelopment of the Basin Reserve. It was officially opened on 29 November 1980 and could seat 2000 spectators. The stand was refurbished in 2017, and a new players' pavilion in the stand opened in December 2018. This was renamed in 2020 in honour of the former test cricketer Ewen Chatfield.
Other points of interest
New Zealand Cricket Museum The New Zealand Cricket Museum, founded in 1987, is housed in the Museum Stand. It has a collection of 30,000 cricket-related items and memorabilia including photographs and jerseys. The museum is open on cricket match days or by appointment and is usually free. The Museum Stand closed to spectators in 2012, but the museum remained open until 2019 when it closed in preparation for earthquake strengthening of the stand. It was redeveloped and reopened in 2021.
Gates The main entrance gates at the Basin Reserve were built in 1917 (along with a new fence) and were later named after two prominent cricketers. The J.R. Reid Gate at the southern side of the grounds is named after John Reid, an accomplished bowler, fieldsman, captain, coach, selector and referee who played 44 first class matches at the Basin and was 191 not out for Wellington in 1959. The C.S. Dempster Gate at the northern side of the Basin is named after Charles ‘Stewie’ Dempster, who made his first-class début for Wellington in 1921-22.
William Wakefield Memorial In 1882, the William Wakefield Memorial was erected at the Basin Reserve. The monument to commemorate a controversial early Wellingtonian, William Wakefield, had been in storage for many years until it was finally erected at the Basin. It was later moved outside the fence, then refurbished and relocated inside the grounds once more. The William Wakefield Memorial has a Heritage New Zealand Category I registration.
Former Midland St Pats cricket clubrooms The single-storey former Midland St Pats clubrooms lie to the south of the Museum Stand. The clubrooms have become the headquarters of Cricket Wellington.
Cricket history
The first event held at the Basin Reserve was a one-day cricket match on 11 January 1868 between the Wellington Volunteers and the crew of HMS Falcon, which was docked in Wellington. However, the match was hampered by injuries due to the numerous stones and thistles in the grass, which led to the injury of some players. The umpire apologised to the players after the match for the poor condition of the playing surface. This was finally remedied in late 1872, which allowed the ground's inaugural first-class cricket match, between Wellington and Auckland, to be played on 30 November 1873. Wellington won the match easily.
The first test match played at the ground was between New Zealand and England, the first day of which was 24 January 1930. One-day international cricket was played at the Basin Reserve until 1999, after which it has mostly been played at the larger Wellington Regional Stadium on the other side of the Wellington CBD.
On 13 March 2011 the Basin Reserve was host to "Fill the Basin", a cricket event intended to raise money for victims of the 2011 Canterbury earthquake. The event attracted a crowd of more than 10,000 people, with some spectators sitting between the boundary rope and the fence. Players involved in the match included Shane Warne, Stephen Fleming, Tana Umaga, Richard Hadlee, Martin Crowe, other famous former New Zealand cricketers, rugby union players Richie McCaw and Conrad Smith and actors Russell Crowe and Ian McKellen. More than $500,000 was raised towards the relief efforts.
During England's 2002 tour the scoreboard was famously described by commentator Mike Selvey as the "ransom-note scoreboard" because of the eccentric collection of fonts that it used.
Cricket statistics
Test matches
There have been 68 Test matches played at the Basin Reserve as of June 2024. The average runs per wicket is 31.42 while the average runs per wicket through New Zealand is 31.27. The average runs per over is 2.85. The ground is more noted as suiting fast bowlers as opposed to spin bowlers. Nine of the top ten wicket takers at the ground are fast bowlers with top wicket taker being Chris Martin with 58 although he only has the 13th best bowling average on the ground.
Brendon McCullum has the highest innings, 302, and is the first Black Cap to pass 300 runs in a test. The previous highest score at the ground and for any NZ test cricketer was the 299 runs by Martin Crowe in 1991 Almost a year later in 2015, Kumar Sangakkara scored his 12000th test runs and his 11th double century there while McCullum dropped three catches and scored a two-ball duck in the first innings. It is also a ground where Trent Boult made the most of his one-handed catches. One of which was the one that removed Sangakkara in 2015. In the same test, Kane Williamson scored his first test double century, with his 6th wicket partner BJ Watling scoring a century in the second innings. Williamson also contributed on the field to help NZ win the test match. His catch also made the top play on Sportscenter in the US.Kane Williamson Catch – #1 On Sportscenter Top 10 Plays In 2017, this was also the ground where Henry Nicholls scored his maiden Test century. Late in that year, Tom Blundell scored his maiden Test century on debut, then walked home while still in uniform as he lives near the ground.
The highest total set by a team here in Test cricket was by the New Zealand national cricket team when they scored 680/8 dec on 14 Feb 2014 against the Indian national cricket team. The most runs scored at this ground have been by Ross Taylor (1279 runs), Kane Williamson (1137 runs) and Martin Crowe (1123 runs). The most wickets have been taken by Chris Martin (60 wickets), followed by Daniel Vettori (57 wickets) and Richard Hadlee (53 wickets).
ODI matches