Pavlova, peanut butter and a personal barista: how the Black Caps celebrate Christmas in Pakistan

First cricket test: New Zealand v Pakistan. Where: National Stadium, Karachi. When: 6pm Monday (day one of five). Coverage: Live on Sky Sport 1, live updates on Stuff from 5.30pm

It’s the unlikeliest of Christmas Day destinations but the Black Caps will enter into the festive spirit in Karachi with pavlova, a personal barista and some classic Kiwi fare prepared by hotel chefs.

Santa’s little helper – also known as bowling coach Shane Jurgensen – is scheduled to don the red hat and hand out presents, too, as the New Zealand cricketers try to bring a sense of familiarity on the eve of the first test against Pakistan. As familiar as you can get amid a security bubble and hotel lockdown, with no partners or children on tour.

It’s rare for the Black Caps to have Christmas away from New Zealand – only in South Africa in 2012 and Australia in 2019 in the past decade – and even rarer to be in Pakistan where they last played a match in 2003. Usually it’s a busy family gathering for all ages somewhere in New Zealand, before a Boxing Day match in places like Christchurch or Mount Maunganui.

READ MORE:
* Tim Southee’s rise to Black Caps test captaincy built on years of steady growth
* Pakistan have woes with bat and ball ahead of two-test series against Black Caps
* Ajaz Patel ready for ‘sore left shoulder’ after bowling just two Black Caps overs in 12 months

After New Zealand Cricket abandoned last year’s Pakistan tour on security advice on the morning of game one in Rawalpindi, it agreed to this two-test, three-ODI tour at the height of the home summer.

England’s 3-0 test series victory was completed without incident last week which would have eased their minds, as new captain Tim Southee’s 15-man squad flew in under heavy guard on Thursday.

“Obviously the Black Caps environment is very family-orientated and we’re quite a tight-knit group. I guess it’ll be pretty low key, and different to Christmas at home, but at the same time, I know the boys will be getting together and we’ll have a few gifts for each other,” said Black Caps spinner Ajaz Patel on departure.

“It’ll be different, but it’ll be interesting. It’ll be exciting. It’ll probably be a bit of fun, some funny business and all that kind of stuff.”

So, how do you celebrate Christmas in Karachi? For the Black Caps, Sunday will mean training from 10am-1pm local time (6pm-9pm NZT) before Southee conducts his pre-match press conference and joins Pakistan’s Babar Azam for the obligatory trophy shots at the National Stadium.

The team will return to their hotel in the now-standard presidential security motorcade for the traditional capping ceremony, where the playing XI are presented with their black caps on match eve.

Christmas dinner will be traditional fare, with chefs preparing a menu including roast chicken, turkey, lamb, seasonal vegetables, Christmas pudding and rice pudding. Jurgensen also provided the home-made pavlova transported in their considerable bag of goodies from home – also including marmite, peanut butter, sourdough and Christmas cake.

Then there’s the coffee. Bowler Blair Tickner runs his own cafe and a coffee machine was seen being squeezed into luggage as they departed Auckland. “There’s a lot of coffee lovers… so he should certainly be supplying a lot for us,” said Jurgensen.

Presents will then be dished out by a bloke in a red hat after the team followed Secret Santa tradition with names drawn out at random.

Said Jurgensen: “We’ll certainly celebrate the day accordingly. It’ll certainly be different, but a good opportunity for us as a team to bond. It will probably be a bit like bubble life again for a few weeks.”

And a welcome return (for some) to test cricket, six months since the Black Caps’ previous series, a rollicking 3-0 defeat in England.

New Zealand have won just two of their 21 tests in Pakistan. Their last one, in 2002, saw a hefty defeat in Lahore via an Inzamam-ul-Haq triple-century and a Shoaib Akhtar bowling demolition, before the second test in Karachi was abandoned on match morning after a fatal bomb blast outside the team hotel.