To: New Zealand Cricket, Hon Mark Mitchell Minister for Sports and Recreation, Minister for Ethnic Communities
Include Auckland on the 2027 Sri Lanka Cricket Tour
What we're asking for
We call on New Zealand Cricket to schedule at least one match of the Sri Lanka 2027 tour as a T20I or ODI at Eden Park, Tāmaki Makaurau.
A white-ball night at Eden Park under lights, with a packed and roaring Sri Lankan crowd, would be one of the fixtures of the summer. It's good for the community, good for Auckland's visitor economy, and good for the game.
Give Auckland a game. Give Sri Lanka's supporters their home fixture.
Why is this important?
In January and February 2027, the Black Caps host Sri Lanka for eight matches: three ODIs, three T20Is and two Tests across seven venues: Napier, Wellington, Dunedin, Christchurch, Nelson, Mount Maunganui and Hamilton.
Not one of them is in Auckland.
We're asking New Zealand Cricket to fix that.
Why this matters
Auckland is New Zealand's largest city and home to its largest Sri Lankan community, a community that has more than doubled in a decade and shows up for its team. Anyone who has stood in a Sri Lanka crowd knows the sound of it: the drums, the flags, the families three generations deep, the roar that turns a ground into a carnival.
In 2027, the schedule asks those supporters to drive hundreds of kilometres to be part of it or miss out entirely.
Eden Park is the only ICC-sanctioned international ground in our biggest city. To skip Auckland is to skip the people who make these fixtures feel like an occasion.
And here's the thing: New Zealand Cricket already agrees Auckland deserves more cricket. NZC has publicly backed redeveloping Eden Park precisely to bring more international fixtures back to the city. This petition simply asks them to honour that ambition now, not in some future stadium, but in the summer of 2027.
