Transport Museum to host major cricket exhibit
Bill Richardson Transport World in Invercargill will host the New Zealand Cricket Museum exhibit next year.
Transport World's Communications Manager Andie Gentle and Executive Director Joc O'Donnell are working on plans for the NZ Cricket Museum exhibit at Bill Richardson Transport World next year.
The exhibit will be on display in an upstairs exhibition space overlooking Bill’s Shed inside the 15,000sqm museum, which is home to the largest transport collection of its type in the world.
It will be a temporary exhibit while the New Zealand Cricket Museum’s home at Wellington’s Basin Reserve undergoes earthquake strengthening and refurbishment throughout 2019.
This will be the first time the collection will be on display elsewhere since it first occupied the former dining room of the Basin Reserve’s Museum Stand 31 years ago.
Bill Richardson Transport World opened in 2015 and was astutely designed to appeal to a broad range of visitors with of a variety of permanent and temporary displays in addition to its transport collection of more than 300 vintage vehicles and 200 petrol pumps.
Transport World Executive Director Joc O’Donnell said this will be the first major non-transport related exhibit to feature at Bill Richardson Transport World.
“We are looking forward to adding even more variety to our visitor’s experience by hosting a great part of New Zealand’s sporting history alongside our own historic collection,” she said.
Just some of the highlights of the exhibit will include the bat Martin Crowe used to score his final Test century, a string ball made by Australian and New Zealand soldiers in a prisoners of war camp in Italy in 1942 and a World Cup display.
New Zealand Cricket Museum Director Jamie Bell is pleased the collection will be in safe hands and good company during the Museum Stand refurbishment.
“Joc and the team at Transport World are as passionate about celebrating history as we are, so for us it’s a great fit to have them showcase our museum contents alongside their collections inside the remarkable Bill Richardson Transport World.
“We also see it as a fantastic opportunity to engage fans in the South which currently has a thriving cricket community,” Jamie said.
He said that following the refurbishment, the collection will return to its former location at the Basin Reserve as a new-look museum where fans can "celebrate all the things that make cricket New Zealand’s summer game".
“In order to do that, we’re planning an ambitious redevelopment that will bring cricket, its history, and its culture to life in hands-on and innovative ways,” Jamie said.
The Bill Richardson Transport World New Zealand Cricket Museum exhibit will open in February 2019 and will be on display until at least Labour Weekend, when the timeline of the Basin Reserve redevelopment will be reviewed. Admission will be included with all tickets into Bill Richardson Transport World.
A special event featuring double All Black Brian McKechnie will help launch the exhibit in Invercargill. 'An evening with Brian McKechnie hosted by Jamie MacKay' will be hosted in Bill’s Shed on Friday 22nd February. Tickets for are available now at iticket.co.nz.
The last chance for the public to see the New Zealand Cricket Museum in Wellington before it relocates to Invercargill will be during the BLACKCAPS v Sri Lanka Test starting this Saturday, 15th December.
