Braden's books tell a cricketing tale

If anyone knows the score on the Marlborough cricket scene, it is Braden Byrne.

The 43-year-old has fulfilled a sometimes-overlooked but vital role for local cricketers for many seasons, ensuring match scorebooks are accurate and correctly filled out.

Now his diligence is being rewarded at the higher levels of NZ cricket, having been a part of NZ Cricket's wider contracted scoring group in recent seasons.

This group sits below the 21-strong national scorers panel and the 13-person reserve panel, but are called on for national age group tournaments and suchlike. This summer, Braden has officiated at the NZ men’s under-19 and under-17 tournaments.

He relishes being part of the cricket scene and playing his role in facilitating matches.

“Scoring is often an overlooked part of cricket because we are invisible,” said Braden, “but it is a very stat-driven game and I think we are really important to its success.”

His path to the scorer’s seat was set while he was still at school.

“I like the game, of course, and I played a bit when I was younger but I felt I was always just making up the numbers. I wasn’t very good at batting, bowling or fielding, but when I tried my hand at scoring I thought ‘oh, this is something I can do OK’.”

Helping his transition from reluctant player to motivated scorer was encouragement from Marlborough Boys’ College classmate Matt Frost, who went on to score test cricket, and conversations with Mike Wilson, a Marlborough pace bowler and rep selector.

This quickly led to a connection with the Wairau club, who were only too grateful to have someone willing and able to handle the often-onerous scoring duties.

“When it became clear I didn’t have the talent to play particularly well, scoring helped me stay involved in the game I love, but played to my strengths.

“I feel I am quite detail-oriented, so that works in my favour.”

Braden was put under early pressure in the scorer’s seat, wielding the pen at first-class level while still in his teens.

“I did my first first-class match at Horton Park in 1997, aged 15. That was before NZ cricket introduced panels for scorers. They tended to use whoever was available locally, so Matt and I, who were still at high school, got the call-up.”

Along with the mechanics of scoring, a major part of the role is a working interaction with the players and umpires.

“Mutual respect is important,” said Braden. “I can provide something as a scorer that player-scorers can’t provide, like extra stats.”

Braden usually scores on paper when dealing with club matches, but at higher levels he generally uses electronic systems, such as PlayHQ. He says both modes of scoring have their good and bad points.

“For club cricket I definitely prefer paper because it shows more than what PlayHQ does. Sometimes on the electronic systems you have to add fill-in [players] because they haven’t been registered, so that is not always a good look,” he explained.

“I don’t think traditional paper scoring is ever going to be obsolete because the technology might not work … a power outage, bad internet connection, they can all impact the electronic scoring.”

Cricket is a game requiring prolonged concentration, and not just for umpires and players. Scorers also have to stay fully engaged, from the first ball to the last, and even afterwards with the all-important stats to be compiled.

“It is a full-on job, especially at club cricket,” explained Braden. “You are often closer to the players and I tend to struggle if there are lots of conversations going around me at once … just a bit of sensory overload.

“It is much easier in a scoring box with just the other scorer and the visitors kept to an absolute minimum.”

Earning a place on NZ Cricket’s top scoring panels is on Braden’s radar, but he is aware there is work to be done to achieve that goal.

“I need to take all the opportunities I am offered and get all the experience I can using the NZ Cricket system,” he said, “but I am certainly keen to score at as high a level as possible.”