The Indian Weekender, 15 April 2022
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10 NEW ZEALAND<br />
Friday, <strong>April</strong> <strong>15</strong>, <strong>2022</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Indian</strong> <strong>Weekender</strong><br />
Pitch curator bags<br />
Northern District Cricket<br />
Association award<br />
SANDEEP SINGH<br />
Vijay Changotra - a Kiwi-<strong>Indian</strong><br />
horticulturist<br />
who works for Auckland<br />
Council’s social infrastructure<br />
organisation firm City Care<br />
- has bagged the prestigious<br />
Northern District Cricket<br />
Association Community<br />
Groundsman Award.<br />
Changotra won the<br />
award ahead of<br />
some of the<br />
veterans in<br />
the fray with<br />
decades of<br />
experience under<br />
their belts<br />
and was elated when<br />
the <strong>Indian</strong> <strong>Weekender</strong> spoke with him about the<br />
coveted prize at Mountfort Park in Manurewa,<br />
South Auckland. –<br />
Northern District Cricket Association is the<br />
parent body of local district and regional levels<br />
cricket associations comprising regions<br />
Northland, Counties Manukau, Hamilton,<br />
Waikato Valley, Bay of Plenty,<br />
and Poverty Bay.<br />
Nominations were invited for<br />
the award by Northern District<br />
Cricket Association along with<br />
awards in other categories,<br />
including Club of the year,<br />
Emerging umpire of the year,<br />
Community Official of the<br />
year etc., from January<br />
28 to February 27.<br />
And the colourful award<br />
ceremony to celebrate<br />
the success of players and<br />
support staff was then held<br />
<strong>The</strong> quality of<br />
pitches here had<br />
been appreciated by<br />
one and all, including<br />
players, coaches and<br />
other experts” and<br />
had compared it to<br />
international standards<br />
on Saturday, <strong>April</strong> 9, at the Sky City Hamilton<br />
and brought together cricket enthusiasts from<br />
the region and beyond.<br />
Speaking to us, an emotionally elated<br />
Changotra shared how he found his way into<br />
the career of ground maintenance and pitch<br />
curating and found a hidden passion inside him<br />
to know, learn and excel in science and the art<br />
of curating a cricket pitch.<br />
Sharing his story of joining the role of<br />
linesman a few years ago for the firm City<br />
Care, which Auckland Council tasks to manage<br />
open spaces, building constructions, facilities<br />
management along with maintaining all social<br />
infrastructure in the Auckland region, he said,<br />
“This role has not been just a job for me, it’s<br />
a passion.<br />
I get goosebumps when I think I am working<br />
in the league of pitch curators who decide the<br />
nature of the cricketing pitch–whether it will<br />
support pace or slow bowling.”<br />
Elaborating further on the craft of curating<br />
a cricket pitch, he pointed towards a small<br />
rectangular block of land in Mountfort Park<br />
and said, “<strong>The</strong> quality of pitches here had been<br />
appreciated by one and all, including players,<br />
coaches and other experts” and had compared it<br />
to international standards.”<br />
Originally from the Kathua district of the<br />
Jammu region in India, Changotra had been<br />
living in New Zealand for the last thirteen years<br />
and had been in this role for around five years.<br />
Recalling his growing up days in India, he<br />
said, “Like all other <strong>Indian</strong>s, I was also obsessed<br />
with the game of cricket – but more as a player<br />
– and had never imagined that I would make a<br />
career in maintaining ground and pitches.”<br />
“It was only after getting into this role that I<br />
realised that curating pitch is a combination of<br />
science and art.”<br />
“One has to be a horticulturist – trained or<br />
learned – to understand the level of moisture<br />
in the ground beneath the pitch and know what<br />
moisture can do to maintain the level of green<br />
grass on the pitch.”<br />
“Now, when I watch international cricket<br />
matches, my eyes are busy capturing how<br />
the pitch is behaving and impacting different<br />
players,” Changotra said.<br />
When asked trivially about how pitches are<br />
perceived to support or challenge batsmen<br />
against different bowling attacks – pace or spin<br />
– he said with a philosophical tone, “A good<br />
pitch offers equal opportunity to all kinds of<br />
players to showcase their talents.”<br />
Changotra is keen to share his success story<br />
with the rest of the community, hoping that his<br />
line of work might find some attention within<br />
the Kiwi-<strong>Indian</strong> community.<br />
Protesters make a comeback in Wellington<br />
VENU MENON<br />
<strong>The</strong> Bank of New Zealand ( BNZ )<br />
branch on Willis Street in central<br />
Wellington quickly downs its shutters<br />
as a small group of protesters gathers on the<br />
sidewalk outside.<br />
“<strong>The</strong> sooner New Zealanders give up their<br />
freedoms, the sooner we’re going to get them<br />
back,” a bearded middle-aged man bellows.<br />
“Yeah, right,” the crowd roars.<br />
“If we can just keep the masses of New<br />
Zealand scared and under control, the best we<br />
can keep them safe,” the man yells, pacing<br />
back and forth on the pavement.<br />
“Yeah, right,” the crowd answers.<br />
This routine is repeated as speaker after<br />
speaker contributes to the theme of the day:<br />
the “mis-and disinformation campaign” run by<br />
the government on Covid-19.<br />
<strong>The</strong> protesters, who bore the brunt of the<br />
police crackdown that ended their 23-day siege<br />
of Parliament in March, have re-surfaced.<br />
This time around, they are following a<br />
different strategy. Rather than amassing at a<br />
single point, the protesters have been gathering<br />
at various locations throughout the CBD as part<br />
of a two-week campaign to draw public attention<br />
to what they call the government's misleading<br />
messaging and faulty policies around<br />
Covid-19. <strong>The</strong> Willis Street protest was Day 8<br />
of this 14-day campaign.<br />
With the vaccine mandates largely lifted, the<br />
protest has shifted its focus to the perceived<br />
harmful effects and fatalities associated with<br />
taking the jab.<br />
<strong>The</strong>re is also strong opposition to<br />
the Covid-19 legislation brought by the<br />
government driving the protest.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y see the NZ Covid-19 Public Health<br />
Response Act 2020 as a coercive piece of<br />
legislation. Joachim Wanihi, 46, who played<br />
a vital role during the Parliament occupation,<br />
points to the wide-ranging powers granted<br />
to inspectors after the post-<strong>April</strong> 4 changes<br />
to the legislation came into effect. Presently,<br />
inspectors are still authorised to enter a premise<br />
without a warrant.<br />
“This means businesses are locked into an<br />
agreement of conduct by force, not by choice,”<br />
Wanihi argues.<br />
While the process of revoking the vaccine<br />
mandates is underway, there are questions<br />
around feasibility and fairness, with Workplace<br />
Relations and Safety Minister Michael Wood<br />
saying those who lost their jobs for failing the<br />
vaccine mandates are not guaranteed to get<br />
their jobs back.<br />
Clearly, the aftermath of the vaccine<br />
mandates wind-down is spawning confusion<br />
regarding the rules.<br />
<strong>The</strong> protesters are seeing an opportunity<br />
to regroup and are tweaking their<br />
agenda accordingly.<br />
<strong>The</strong> anti-vaccine mandate protest that raged<br />
on the Parliament grounds in March appears to<br />
have morphed into an anti-vaccine stir instead,<br />
with an ideological shift away from mandates<br />
to raising questions about the politics behind<br />
the government’s Covid-19 policy, the science<br />
behind vaccinations and against the mandate<br />
of the World Health Organisation (WHO) as<br />
the global authority on public health.<br />
But this protest is nowhere close to<br />
gaining the traction witnessed in March<br />
when NZ held the world’s attention for three<br />
tumultuous weeks.