The day was done. The crowd was in a frenzy. For New Zealand’s Black Caps, the Cricket World Cup was lost.
With a heavy heart, batsman Martin Guptill found his gorgeous wife, TV presenter and radio host Laura McGoldrick, on the boundary of the Melbourne Cricket Ground, where moments earlier his dreams of winning the cup for the first time had been dashed.
“I’m so sorry you lost,” Laura told her husband with tears running down her cheeks, “but I’m so, so proud of you.”
The tears, Laura explains, “weren’t because we lost but because of everything Martin and the team had achieved”.
After tying the knot in a fairy-tale wedding last September, Laura and Martin have already packed more into their first year of marriage than most couples would tick off in a decade, with Martin smashing his way into the record books with the highest-ever World Cup tally for a Kiwi of 547 runs, while Laura expertly covered the event from the sidelines for SKY TV.
Laura is known for her cheeky style, both on Radio Hauraki’s breakfast show and Sky TV’s The Cricket Show, which is where the pair met in 2011.
There was more anxiety than cheek, however, when Laura took a seat to watch her husband bat against Australia on March 29. The pair had spent the morning of the final together at their Melbourne hotel before Martin headed off to “work”.
“We tried to keep it as normal as possible,” says Laura. “We really didn’t want to freak ourselves out before we got there. So it was like, ‘Good luck, see you there – and what do you want for dinner?’” she jokes.
While Martin prepared for the big game, Laura’s time was taken up interviewing and presenting for Sky TV.
The 26-year-old didn’t switch from reporting mode to wife mode until Martin, 28, was on the field, singing the national anthem.
“Then I was very teary,” says Laura, who confesses she’s an emotional sports-watcher at the best of times, let alone when her husband is playing the match of his life.
“I was planning to sit with my family to watch him bat, but I ran out of time. In the end, I found a seat by myself right down by the New Zealand dug-out. It was better that I watched it by myself … There were quite a few nerves.”
Moving around the stadium, sitting with her family and then with the players’ partners, Laura’s heart was in her mouth throughout the game, which was the end of a history-making rollercoaster ride for the heroic Black Caps.
Martin Guptill and Laura McGoldrick
Smashed it!
It was the first time NZ had made it to a final and she had been there throughout the tournament.
Although Martin was bowled out early in the final, Laura had to sit tight in the stands until the game was over. Then all the families were invited into the changing rooms.
“I came and got Laura, but we were absolutely gutted,” says Martin. “We knew we didn’t play to our potential.”
“It was all a bit of a blur,” continues Laura. “There were streamers everywhere and I seemed to be surrounded by Aussies who had just won the thing. I was thinking, ‘Ugh.’
“But I wasn’t gutted. It was a moment of sheer admiration. Martin conducted himself throughout the tournament with the utmost professionalism and no-one’s ever going to take that away from him – plus the fact that he was at the MCG playing for his country at the final of the Cricket World Cup!”
The dressing rooms of the Cricket World Cup Final seem a long way from Laura and Martin’s other big event last September, when they tied the knot at the Community of Saint Luke Church in Remuera, Auckland.
“Our wedding day has been the highlight of our relationship,” says Laura. “But the World Cup was a very close second.”
Martin Guptill and Laura McGoldrick
So in love
It’s obvious Laura only has eyes for Martin and that the feeling’s mutual. “He’s got a really good heart. He would give you the shirt off his back – he’s that kind of guy. I’m very lucky to have that in my life,” tells Laura.
“She’s always bubbly and smiling,” says Martin. “She’s such a positive, calming influence to be around. She makes me feel pretty special.”
The pair have been so busy these past six months, they were back at work two days after their wedding – and the couple aren’t slowing down anytime soon.
Last Thursday, Martin flew to England to play county cricket for Derbyshire, followed by a New Zealand tour of the UK for the next five months.
Laura will spend the first two weeks with him, then she’s back to work at Radio Hauraki’s Breakfast Show, Sky Sport and Holden Golf World.
As for the future, the two lovebirds reveal they’re intent on making the most of their crazy-busy lives doing jobs they love.
“It’s going to be hard being away from Laura all that time,” says Martin, who first picked up a bat as a five-year-old. “But you only get one chance at this.”
“We haven’t seen a lot of each other since we got married,” adds Laura. “I always miss him, but you just get on with it. He’s chasing his dream and I find that really inspiring.
“A couple of the cricket wives have suggested we get a wriggle on in the baby department. When the time’s right, we will definitely have a family. Martin is going to be an amazing dad.?“But he’s out of the country for five months,” she laughs, “and when it comes to starting a family, well, I’d need him around for certain aspects of that …”
