Even with three former first-class cricketers on the staff, the school is struggling to attract players and is unable to field a team in the Saturday competitions.
A decade ago, the school’s cricket programme was in good health. The school had three teams and its First XI made it to the Gillette Cup finals.
Spinner Nick Beard and batsman Michael Bracewell went on to play first-class cricket for Otago. Beard made the 2007 Gillette Cup tournament team, which included future Black Caps Kane Williamson, Corey Anderson, Tom Latham and George Worker.
But 10 years on, Kavanagh does not have any teams competing in the Saturday competitions. The school did contest the Secondary School Boys’ First XI Cup (formerly known as the Gillette Cup), though.
Head of sport Michael MacKenzie said the programme had gone into decline simply because there was "not a lot of cricketers coming to Kavanagh".
"The main reason is there is a lack of [playing] numbers," he said.
"We have an eclectic bunch from year 13s through to year 9s in the Gillette Cup team at the moment. We only have perhaps seven cricketers who are good enough to compete in the second-grade competition ... so we made a decision this year not to put players in that situation."
MacKenzie and Anthony Harris both played two first-class games for Otago and Shaun Haig played 34 first-class games, 24 one-dayers and one twenty20 match for the province.
But with Haig busy with his umpiring career, Harris tied up with family commitments and MacKenzie spread thin, there is no-one really driving the programme. And the other major obstacle for the school is it is not seen as the place to be for aspiring cricketers, MacKenzie said.
"It has taken a big hit but all the cricketers go to three schools, remember," he said in reference to Otago Boys’ High School, King’s High School and John McGlashan College.
"They have 95% of the cricketers in Dunedin ... and we’ve probably lost two or three cricketers from year 8 last year who have gone to Otago Boys’ this year. That hasn’t helped."
While cricket is in the doldrums, others sports were flourishing, MacKenzie said.
"We’ve got 20 futsal teams, 15 netball teams, four football teams, so you could argue that our school is going great guns. We’re national futsal champions.
"Those are the sort of things that are happening at our school but we are just losing some of those traditional sports ... and in cricket we are battling at the moment."
A look at the sports draws in the Otago Daily Times reveals the number of secondary school teams playing cricket in Dunedin has remained stable during the past 10 years.
In 2007, there were 25 school teams — the same number of teams as this season. However, a Sport New Zealand and New Zealand Secondary Schools Sports Council census revealed the number of players dropped from 700 in 2015 to 659 in 2016.
Those findings suggest the sport has a challenge ahead to remain relevant for the younger generation, particularly in co-educational schools like Kavanagh.
