The launch of the new season of domestic cricket in New Zealand today heralded a new era in the game.

While the players were competing in the first State Max tournament by virtue of the new domestic sponsorship, the executives of the six Major cricket associations were behind closed doors at the North Harbour Stadium at Albany knocking around their ideas to maximise New Zealand Cricket's chief executive Martin Snedden's desire to have an impact with domestic play.

The adoption of a new sponsorship arrangement was well-timed as it backed NZC's desire to see more emphasis on the home grown content of the game as opposed to the more international outlook of the last five years.

Snedden told the assembled players at a function last evening that NZC would be backing them to the hilt and he said that news had been received today that the State Shield final will be broadcast free-to-air by TV3 in January.

The Albany tournament will produce the first winner of one of the new prestigious trophies up for grabs in New Zealand and Otago made sure it would have a chance when progressing to the second round by comfortably accounting for Northern Districts in today's second game.

ND was able to get a useful start with its score of 103/3 when batting first, but it needed more runs. Mark Bailey was the pick of the ND batsmen scoring 54 off 29 balls and timing some of his shots sweetly. But the remaining batsmen in the side were unable to kick on.

Otago saw Andrew Hore depart to the first ball he faced. Brendon McCullum offered a glimpse of the talent he is about to unleash on the local scene with 31 from 17 balls and while Chris Gaffaney (17) and Craig Cumming (16) provided some useful support, Otago didn't really make the most of their chances.

Joseph Yovich gave the batsmen an especially torried time, bowling his three overs for only 26 runs while picking up three wickets. Scott Styris looked set to have a big role to play in the second innings after taking 2-12 from his first two overs.

If ever it could be said that a match possibly turned on an individual piece of brilliance it may have been in this game when Cumming made a superb diving catch at backward point to dismiss Bailey in the first over of ND's response. It was a lovely piece of cricket which gave Otago a real shot in the arm.

Then when Matthew Hart was out with only four runs on the board, Otago had their in. After four overs ND were only able to reflect on 30 runs on the board. They were wedging themselves into a corner. Styris especially seemed unable to take as much control as he would have wanted, although just before his dismissal he added some quick runs, courtesy of the Max zone to end with 35 from 17 balls.

Grant Bradburn helped boost the scoring with 27 down the order, but the 93 runs ND finished with were not enough.

That was rammed home by Hore when Otago batted a second time. Making up for lost runs from the first innings, he tore into ND's bowling, being especially severe on Graham Aldridge to hit a Max six off his first ball and an extra cover drive for six from the second. He brought up his 50 off only 15 balls and he went on to 63 from 20 with two boundaries from Bradburn, the second a beautifully-executed reverse sweep.

He had given the innings such momentum that an Otago victory was never in doubt and it will now play Canterbury tomorrow morning to see who advances to the next stage, a playoff with whoever loses the game between the top seeds Wellington and Auckland.

Otago achieved its victory with 13 balls to spare, a landslide in Max terms. The only ND bowler to bowl two overs in this innings was Styris, at a cost of 12 wicketless runs.

An outstanding aspect of the Otago bowling was the performance of James McMillan. In both innings he maintained an accurate line which saw him take one for 14 from his two overs in the first innings and two for 11 in the second innings.

Otago generally bowled well and it will have a fascinating contest with the naturally attacking Canterbury players in tomorrow's game.

© CricInfo