Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - Getting Kicked Out Of A Cricket World Cup!

Episode Date: October 31, 2024

We spoke with G Lane, the head of the ACC, about the remarkable events of the past decade. We chat the ACC's latest book: Almanack - A Decade of New Zealand Sports. Discover the early stories that shaped the ACC. Uncover the controversy surrounding allegations of match-fixing. Plus, a cheeky mention of Ben and a not-so-fond memory! In addition, Mike offers Megan a crash course on cricket to prepare her for an important interview next week! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This John O'Byrne podcast, hey that's us, brought to you by HelloFresh, the experts and tastes that Kiwis love. Mike Lane or G Lane as he's known in the ACC, welcome along, great to have you here. Good morning, yeah it's good to be here. Now you can add published author to your list of achievements, right? Well, published author, I don't know, but we've got our 10 year almanac. 10 years ago the ACC started in a borrowed caravan at McLean Park, broadcasting on iHeartRadio for the very first time, and we're still here 10 years later.

Is that 10 years ago? Wow. And so the almanac, this is a collection of all the footage and photos that you have. Some stories. It's some stories. It's the origin story of it. There's also a lot of oral history in there. So basically everyone got interviewed from the original seven were there around the several incidents that happened from being thrown out of the World Cup to all sorts of other things that happened, landing in a helicopter in a ground unauthorized.

And basically it's everyone's different version of those stories as well. So the oral history is quite amusing because how Lee Hart remembers those stories is wildly different from what Jeremy Wells remembers to what Jason Hoyt, who doesn't actually remember anything. So there's a lot of oral history around that. There's also touches on all the sporting moments in the last 10 years. There's been, you know, a couple of rugby World Cups, a couple of cricket World Cups.

How did you get kicked out of, not to spoil or alert, but how did you get kicked out of the cricket World Cup? Well, we got accused of stealing a drinks trolley and driving it the gatorade drinks trolley driving it on the field during a game and interviewing players unauthorized during a game yes well there's accused but accused there was elements of truth did you do it there was leah was on the drinks trolley and he did go on the field and he did have a conversation with a couple of players. But at the end of it, the story got so wild by the end of that game. And this was the 2011 World Cup.

It got so wild by the end of it that we got accused of match fixing and talking to the players about what doing. And it went crazy. It spiraled out of control and we couldn't control it and in the end everyone panicked and they threw us out like even the parent company it looks after us they panicked as well because they thought they were going to get their rights pulled and we just got booted to the curb mid-game like at the end of the game and you explain it it's it's all in the book it's all in the book it's a great conversation i, which was the head of radio at the time who rang me after the game. I had thousands of missed calls on my phone.

You know, when there's so many missed calls, you just lost track of them. And I rang him back, and his first words were, please tell me you didn't do it. And I went, oh, we did some pretty terrible stuff today. You know, we had all sorts of stupid, you know, guess the commentator's perineum and like terrible stuff like that and i said and i said that and he goes what and i went oh was it this and he goes no oh i said well what was it then because they're the two worst things we did today

and he goes you stole a drink stroller you drove it on the field interview players icc have thrown you out um we're in big trouble by the way oh okay we didn't do that funnily enough we didn't do that anyway it was probably the making of us actually actually, because the next week we broadcasted again. We just went loud in the ground, but we did it from the caravan circling the ground and had three times the audience. Then after that, it was 10 times the audience. So people got to know what we were doing.

You must be really stoked with how it's taken off from, you know, humble beginnings. And now, you know, you're doing a Sky Sport, you know, Game of Two Halves reboot. You know, you've got a're doing a sky sport you know game of two halves reboot you know you got a book out uh yeah it's pretty cool you're commentating games on sky sport and and all over the place yeah it's good i mean it's good that we've got that as an option because i think we a lot of people take sport too seriously because sport at its essence is entertainment you should be entertained by sport and i think there was a while there where sport was taken far too seriously and I'm looking at rugby here. And you weren't allowed to have fun at the games.

You weren't allowed to have fun with the game. You weren't allowed to have a laugh or take the piss, anything like that. It was all very serious. So I think it's been quite refreshing to do this. I think there is people who enjoy sport as entertainment. We always say that we are entertainment at the expense of editorial integrity. So we're never going to be on The Herald. We're never going to be on TVNZ1, apart from The Black

Clash. We're never going to be that mainstream. We're always the alternative. The clue's in the title. And it's an alternative to the mainstream. And we have a bit of fun. We laugh. I mean, it's not everyone's cup of tea. Speaking of, we've had some complaints come through, not to this show,

but News Talk ZB, Jason Pine, the sports host. Here we go. Mac, hello. Yeah, g'day, Piney. I'd like to talk about the Sky TV commentary last night. I thought it was an absolute bloody disgrace, and the three clowns on there were an embarrassment to everybody. Embarrassment to everybody.

That's fair. I think that's a fair call. That's a fair call. I mean, why wouldn't you be? Look, Mac, God bless Mac, a lot of people stumble across us by accident. Accidentally, right, yeah. However, there is a group of people,

these are great New Zealanders, who stitch up their parents and grandparents and come over and change their skybox so when they turn it on, it automatically goes to our commentary. Because normally we're on Sky Sport 9, which is eight channels away from sky sport one yeah um is that as far removed could you pull you from the original broadcast correct but this particular one mac this this was an all-black game or it may have been the super rugby final i can't remember but they

at the time the olympics were on so the olympics took up all the other channels so we were on sky sport select which is actually before Sky Sport 1. So Mac obviously just went to one channel. But God bless him. He listened to the whole thing. He stayed with it. He really wanted to watch that game. He stayed with it.

I mean, we get some great complaints. He ended up hate-watching it. Yes. Which is the ideal audience. It totally is. And some of the text messages we get are hilarious of people who go to their parents house or grandparents and watch the rugby with them and put our commentary on

and then they just video their grandparents going, buddy how's this? Where's this bone? And it's pretty funny. The Alternate Commentary Collective the almanac is out now. First I'll make you look at it. You're in the back there.

You're in the appendix. Oh, funny. You found yourself straight away. Oh, yeah. No, I was having a little look through it. I was like, oh, there's a little blurb about each person as well, which I hadn't sanctioned, but that's all right. Let's be clear.

No one sanctioned anything. If anyone was going to sanction it, it wouldn't have been published. Because I saw someone else in the building that wrote a book the other day. They had to get stuff run past lawyers and all sorts. I tell you what, one person who's not happy, Jason Hoyt. Oh, right.

Well, that's not bad. It's just he's been voiced the creator of Pulp Sport and John O'Bennett 10, Ben commentates on cricket, has entered a party in the New Zealand general election and has previously been arrested. Nothing else. No one needs any more details.

Doesn't say what for. He loves that no he loves that he loves that yarn like what is okay yeah anyway who hasn't been arrested yeah yeah

there we go so thank you I wanted to appear in the book just so you know he definitely would have made some edits to that great it's an honour to be in there

yeah there is one particular story in there that every name is redacted oh that sounds spicy yeah that's for a reason yeah okay alright right in the middle there great gift I imagine There's a particular story in there that every name is redacted. Oh, that sounds spicy. Yeah, that's for a reason. Okay.

All right. Right in the middle there. Great gift. I imagine they're heading into Christmas as well too. You know, people are listening right now of partners into sport and all sorts, and maybe they're into sport. Great, great gift. Great stocking stuffer is what I like to call it because it's one of those books you can just chuck in the toilet and you can pick it up at any chapter.

There's no real chronological order. No. There is. It's 10 years of sport, but you can pick it up anywhere um your mate daniel vittori who uh you know legendary black cap and now a coach as well um he's got a it's actually quite good as the quote on the on the cover now this is almost like a surprise it's actually quite good yeah well it's like hamilton's old slogan you know better than you That's right. That was more than you expected, sorry. It was Hampton.

I wasn't expecting much, but it was more than that. Now, being the cricket aficionado that you are, Mike Lane, and with this almanac out now, almanac or almanac? That's a great question. It's been thrown around. I'll call it almanac. Yeah, almanac. Okay, so there's the-

What is that? Is that a word? Yeah. Is it a sporting word? Well, yeah, I guess it is. Only associated with sport. You have a sports almanac. It's like a history of...

Yeah. Right. Okay, so there's the Alternate Commentary Collective almanac or almanac out now. And there's also another book that focuses heavily on cricket as well. Now, this is called All Out. And I'm not going to say who it's from. It's from a black cap.

Now, Megan, next week you're going to be interviewing this black cap. So this is your research right now. If Mike, you can pass it across. Now, we thought you'd take a moment because it's surprising you. You've got to interview this person in the studio, former black cap. But you can ask Mike any cricket questions now to get his knowledge.

How good looking is he? Yeah, he's very good looking. He doesn't play anymore. Well done. I know, it's a question. He doesn't play for the Blackcaps anymore, but he's actually still playing cricket. First thing, how would you pronounce his name?

Neil Wagner. Yeah, well done. Okay, good. Well, I don't know about that. Is it Wagner? Oh. Or is it Wagner? Is it Wagner or Wagner?

I don't know. We call him Neil Wagner. And I don't know if that's correct or not. Am I going to look like a dick if he comes in and I'm like, good morning, Neil Wagner. You're laughing. Yeah, true. Don't call him that.

He's generally known as Wagner. But it is contentious of Wagner. But you're right. He doesn't play anymore for the Blackcaps. Okay. Did he have a nickname when he was playing? Like Wags? Waggles?

Yeah, Wags nailed it first up. I mean, cricketers aren't overly creative with nicknames. It's usually stick an O on the end or shorten it and put an S. That's one of your guys' calling cards is the great nicknames you make for players. Did Wags have an ACC nickname? No, it was Wagner. It was Wagner. It was Wagner. And he's got a very 007 look about him.

He does. So he'd make a great James Bond. He's quite aggressive on the field. Oh, okay. Nicest guy you'll ever meet when you meet him. Quite relatively short in stature. Hence, he was quite a difficult bowler to face because he was quite short,

but he'd bang it into the pitch. But on the field very passionate and some would say he almost had a few anger issues. I reckon a good line of questioning is to go down there does that translate into any other part of your life? Like on the golf course?

In the kitchen? So I'm going to bring up that he's reasonably short, has got anger issues and is the name Wagner? Are you German? in the kitchen. So I'm going to bring up that he's reasonably short, has got anger issues, and... Yeah, yeah. Yeah, great. And is the name Wagner? Are you German?

No! Those are the three leading... Originally from South Africa, right? Yes, yes. He is originally from South Africa. Now lives in Papamoa. He's got a young family in Papamoa, lives out there.

He's living the life out there at the Mount, in the Bay of Plenty. Any technical questions? Yeah. How long did he play for oh and you pull about 10 probably up to 10 12 years wow okay but he can all the chess match yeah like he didn't really play a lot of white ball cricket there you go yeah no more

of these things she's like what yeah they do different like a one day yeah one day well one day red bull specialist so what white balls what they use for one dayers and T20s. But he was red ball, yeah. Good question. What colour balls do you prefer? Yeah, okay. That would be a good question. Great question. Great question.

Another one, do you prefer grass on the wicket or not? Okay. That's another one. When playing cricket. When playing cricket. Because the more grass, the more seam movement you get. He liked to bang it into the wicket too, wouldn't he? So he was a bowler.

Yes. Whereabouts in the batting wouldn't he? So he was a bowler. Yes. Whereabouts in the batting order was he? Oh, very much. Because if he's near the back, he's not good, eh? Either last, or if Trent Bolt was playing, he'd bat 10.

But he actually wasn't a bad batsman, you know. He actually had good technique. Right. And he's actually not a bad little tail ender, Neil Wagner. Nice guy. You'll really enjoy interviewing him.

Okay. He's got dangerously blue eyes piercing blue eyes you keep going on about his good looks do you want to be here during the interview

I do is there one question you know from one of your times this is putting on the spot here but obviously you've got a book out and you've commentated many great moments

that he's been part of Neil Wagner is there one question that would really make Megan feel like she's watched that game, particular game, like a test championship or something? I think the pink ball test in Eden Park was a particular highlight for me when they had England on the ropes. And Neil Wagner was pretty much running in from the boundary

because it's so short, short boundaries there. And we were playing Wagner the classical artist at full volume and it was one of the most vibrant moments when he was steaming in the last over and he snicked one of the English players out it was one of the greats but I'd have to say it was that effort I think it might have been at um Basin Reserve where he got a wicket off his last delivery to win the Test match. Caught down leg side. It was one of the great moments. So if you can say that, would that be your greatest moment? The final wicket off the last ball to win the what?

Test match. Caught down leg side. And he was caught down leg side. Just say, does the Basin Reserve hold special memories for you? Oh, that's a good one. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. That sums it up. You've had a lot of magical moments

for New Zealand. Can you sum up a couple of them? What are the two most highlights? Is it the pink ball test in Eden Park? When you got that dude caught down leg side. So what we're going to do

is we're going to say at the start you're a big fan and then at the end John and I will come in and go, did you know that Megan has never watched cricket in her life?

We'll find out, okay? Do you need me? I'm free to commentate. Yeah, yeah. More than welcome. I'll write you a bio. We'll put it in the book. We'll find out, okay? Do you need me? I'm free to commentate. Yeah, yeah. More than welcome. I'll write your bio. We'll put it in the book, all right? I'll write your bio.

But we won't check on you first. No, that's right. We'll write your bio. That's the way it works. G Lane, Mike Lane from the Alternate Commentary Collective. He's got a new book out, the ACC Almanac. Thanks so much for your time. Appreciate it.

Thanks for having me.