Except, one-by-one, those broadcasting gigs fell over, culminating on that fateful day in March 2023, when Today FM, MediaWorks\u2019 upstart talkback station, fell apart live on air with Tova O\u2019Brien telling listeners the staff had been \u201cf***ed\u201d by management and Duncan Garner calling the whole thing a \u201cbetrayal\u201d. <\/p>\n
The AM Show, presented by Duncan Garner, news anchor Amanda Gillies, sports presenter Mark Richardson.<\/p>\n
Richardson, who hosted the afternoon show with Leah Panapa, was listening. He learned his fate live, along with everyone else. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I got into my car at 9 o\u2019clock to go to work, I had a job. And by the time I got there, I didn\u2019t. It was all unravelling in front of me.\u201d<\/p>\n
He liked the job and felt the show had legs, but he wasn\u2019t \u201cdumb\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew the success of that station wasn\u2019t riding on the afternoon offering. We were filling air, but we thought we were filling air pretty well,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been through that in cricket, I\u2019ve been in and out of teams. When I got into the Black Caps, I thought, \u2018I\u2019m the one who decides when I leave here\u2019 – and I did, I got out early. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut this time, it felt like a really unfair kick in the guts. But I was lucky I got this other opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richardson, 54, is now a qualified investment advisor at Forsyth Barr in Auckland. In a nutshell, he makes money by helping other people make money with their money. It meant brushing off a (very faded) Bachelor of Commerce he finished while playing cricket for Otago, and sitting a handful of exams as a 50-something starting his career again from scratch. <\/p>\n
Richardson has told this story before, but it\u2019s clearly a pivotal moment for him. When all those broadcasting jobs disappeared, things got tough. At first, his agent was sure he would find more work on telly, then slowly realised the jobs just weren\u2019t out there.<\/p>\n
\u201cMoving on from 20 years of broadcasting takes some time. I\u2019m not sure if there was a finality, but there was a real sort of emptiness, that it\u2019s not fair,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
At a loss of what to do next, Richardson turned to the NZ Cricket Players Association, or players\u2019 union. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t really [fit] my political leanings with being a life member of a union, but\u2026\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
The organisation helps players transition to life after the game – even ones like Richardson, who hadn\u2019t played for two decades. They sent him to an HR company and a personality test suggested he was 100% psychologically suited to being in the military – and least suited to a career in sport and entertainment. He was staggered, but then again, it did explain why he\u2019d felt on edge for more than half his life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always stressed about everything. And I think 1759537448 I\u2019m just conditioned to being able to deal with that. Always feeling a little bit uncomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n
‘Moving on from 20 years of broadcasting takes some time.’<\/p>\n
He says he really learned to struggle as a batter, which he picked up after his hands suddenly stopped bowling spin the way they had at the start of his career. And he means that in a good way – now, struggling makes achievements more rewarding. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I\u2019m probably most proud of as a cricketer is that I wasn\u2019t really that good but I got every ounce of ability out of myself\u2026 I\u2019d just grit my teeth and survive.\u201d<\/p>\n
It sounds exhausting. Is this new career a little kinder to the nervous system? Not a chance. By 8.30pm, his brain is usually shattered. There have been times he has fallen asleep on the bus home from work because he is \u201cmentally stuffed\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a million different ways to make a buck in this world,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you can\u2019t check out – because people\u2019s money doesn\u2019t sleep. If they want something done, you\u2019ve got to get it done\u2026 and if they are worried about their money, it\u2019s your responsibility to worry with them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI find it mentally up and down, but I think I\u2019ve always gravitated to vocations that give me a sense of self-worth… and this job gives you a tremendous sense of self-worth.\u201d <\/p>\n
He compares starting out in finance to learning a language and he\u2019s learning Spanish by living in Spain, by which he means, he\u2019s thrown himself into it completely. His wife, Mary, lost her role with Air NZ during Covid and retrained in real estate just before Richardson started his studies and together they are grateful to be able to start again in their 50s, especially as next year they will be empty nesters when their 18-year-old twins, Annabel and Charlie, leave for university. But yes, learning new things in middle age made him nervous. <\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Ding ding, your assignment has been graded\u2019 – [when I got that message] my heart would go, like I was walking out to bat,\u201d he says. The qualifications to work in a job like his usually take people a year and a half to complete. He did it in six months. \u201cI actually, proudly, set a record, I think.\u201d <\/p>\n
It turns out, people like talking about markets and they like talking about money. When he started at Forsyth Barr just over two years ago, Richardson would regularly book a round of golf with a bunch of strangers and the minute they started chatting, he\u2019d have a \u201cgood few hours of talking shop, which builds that street cred\u201d. Because being \u201cthe guy off the telly\u201d didn\u2019t really work in his favour like you think it might. <\/p>\n
Mark Richardson racing Darren Lehmann in 2004. Richardson won the race. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, I\u2019ve become very selective about how I tie myself to my former life,\u201d he says. \u201cEverything I do needs to build credibility in this.\u201d<\/p>\n
That means that if \u201cThe Block ever came back or if The Block did come back or if The Block had come back, I would have said no. It would have placed me [back] as the man on telly\u201d.<\/p>\n
Cricket commentary is different. Maybe don\u2019t tell TVNZ, but he says he would still do that for free because he loves it so much. This summer, he will set up a mobile office near the commentary box and do his day job in between speaking another language, this time of wides and googlies and cow corners.<\/p>\n
There are a lot of similarities between cricket and finance, according to the man who knows both. In cricket, you need to have the basics, and if you want to be good, those take time to learn. You learn about risk management – which anyone who saw Richardson bat knows he understands that concept all too well. <\/p>\n
\u201c[In finance] you live and breathe your successes, and your losses keep you awake at night, just like cricket. If you had a bad day and you played a bad shot, you ask questions of yourself – \u2018what the hell\u2019s wrong with me?\u2019 <\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to learn from your mistakes. And it\u2019s probably worse here \u2026 it\u2019s not your batting average, it\u2019s someone else\u2019s portfolio.\u201d <\/p>\n
For someone who has made a name for themselves ruffling feathers (if that\u2019s not something of an understatement), Richardson cares \u201cdearly\u201d about his colleagues and his clients and about what people think of him. But during his broadcasting career, he learnt he wouldn\u2019t be destroyed if people didn\u2019t like him. <\/p>\n
Did he worry he had upset people with his comments on everything from asking women about their pregnancy plans all the way through to suggesting an all-female team on The Block should \u201cflirt\u201d with potential buyers to get a better auction price? <\/p>\n
Mark Richardson and Shelley Ferguson on The Block NZ.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got no regrets. I always said what I believed. I basically said what I thought, not what I think I should say. There was a lot of disagreement and a lot of angst over things that I said, but I never felt I crossed the line. It was always just a difference of opinion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t go out to upset people, but I knew it was part of the gig… if you just want to be mediocre and never actually go as far as you can go…Just say what you think you should say, be happy to go under the radar, not upset anyone, be good at the mechanics. You might survive – but you\u2019ll never thrive.\u201d <\/p>\n
He doesn\u2019t remember exactly what he said to get under late Aussie cricketer Shane Warne\u2019s skin – but he wears the fact that he did as a \u201cbadge of honour\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I said something wrong one day and that was that. We didn\u2019t get on, we had clashing personalities. He was one of the greatest to ever play the game, and I was just me. I was always quite proud of the fact that this great player, for some reason, I lived rent free in his head.\u201d <\/p>\n
As he\u2019s having his photo taken, the receptionist at Forsyth Barr tells a preoccupied Richardson it\u2019s not often that he\u2019s not talking. It sounds like a gag, but she later whispers to me that he\u2019s \u201cactually quite quiet. That\u2019s why I said that\u201d. Maybe that\u2019s new-ish kid energy, because Shane Bond, Richardson\u2019s former Black Caps teammate and fellow TVNZ commentator, says actually, what you see on screen is pretty close to what you get off it. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re in the public eye it\u2019s easy to try to want everyone to like you. [Richardson\u2019s] just himself. He\u2019d say he\u2019s negative and grumpy, which is probably true, but that\u2019s probably the same for most blokes over 50,\u201d Bond says. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe will express an honest opinion whether in person or private and you can get into a good debate on it. I like that. He likes his golf and solitude. I\u2019ve always found him interesting. He\u2019s done a lot of different things and certainly gets outside of his comfort zone. I admire him for that. Plus, you have to be a bit nuts to open the batting.\u201d <\/p>\n
Speaking of nuts, in 2018, Richardson said he wouldn\u2019t mind being a National MP because he saw it as a game, a competition. What about now? A 2026 run for office, perhaps?<\/p>\n
\u201c[I have] not a skerrick of political ambition,\u201d Richardson says rather emphatically. \u201c[Back then] I wasn\u2019t a journo – I\u2019d never been a journo. Then the National Party was showing some interest and it was a stroke of my ego. Duncan [Garner] said, \u2018don\u2019t you ever go into politics\u2019\u2026 and I think I came to my senses. I would last five minutes in that environment.\u201d <\/p>\n
Richardson didn\u2019t get to make his own decision about ending almost every other one of his broadcasting jobs, but he thinks this summer of cricket commentary will be his last. Next year, Sky will pick up the broadcast rights and Richardson doesn\u2019t see a place for him there. Instead, he\u2019s going to soak up his last moments in the media spotlight.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve done it for 20-odd good years, and I will miss it. But then, this is a new life. And this will be [drawing] the last line under broadcasting, and I\u2019ll be completely out and completely moved on.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn cricket, I got near the top, but not one of the greats. And in broadcasting, [I] got up there, into primetime, but not one of the greats. But I\u2019ve got to be happy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels like this is my swansong\u2026so I\u2019m going to enjoy it.”<\/p>\n
Free-to-air cricket is live on TVNZ during the 2005\/26 summer. <\/p>\n
Bridget Jones joined the New Zealand Herald in 2025. She has been a lifestyle and entertainment journalist and editor for more than 15 years. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Except, one-by-one, those broadcasting gigs fell over, culminating on that fateful day in March 2023, when Today FM,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[74,95,48885,44485,1558,31875,9516,3795,16558,9828,17438,48884,246,1888,71,17881,25901,78,232,2176,424,6093,663,1362,32573,13617,111,139,69,90,10521,34323,1523,4965,48886,24365,48882,48883,213,1355,6642,107,698,44194,102,377,1530,80],"class_list":["post-59044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-after","tag-and","tag-arse","tag-batter","tag-been","tag-bridget","tag-broadcaster","tag-broadcasting","tag-cricket","tag-different","tag-easy","tag-feathers","tag-finance","tag-first","tag-from","tag-got","tag-hasnt","tag-in","tag-jobs","tag-jones","tag-life","tag-little","tag-looks","tag-made","tag-mark","tag-name","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-opening","tag-opinions","tag-over","tag-radio","tag-rebuilding","tag-richardson","tag-riskaverse","tag-ruffle","tag-sports","tag-starting","tag-tells","tag-then","tag-until","tag-willing","tag-with","tag-world","tag-years","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}