New Zealand and cricket’s two-way street to all solutions
Exposing all stumps, making room and prancing down his ground, Kane Williamson had smashed a six to remember in the group stage game against co-hosts Australia. While Pat Cummins’ stunned eyes gazed at the sky following the way of the ball, the best game of the 2015 World Cup was won by the Kiwis.
Around 50,000 members of the audience at the Eden Park witnessed the moment that lit up the ICC mega event and helped soar up the economy of New Zealand cricket. Going to numbers, the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup had boosted New Zealand's economy by $110 million and created 2300 jobs in what was one of the most-watched sporting events ever. Come to today’s date, New Zealand Cricket anticipated a "challenging" next financial year after returning another loss, $2.3 million below its forecast for 2018-19. NZC's annual report, presented in November 2019’s annual meeting in Auckland, revealed a $1.3m net loss for the past year after losses of $3.5m (2018) and $9.3m (2017). According to the report, NZC had budgeted for a $1m profit in 2018-19 but the next year went downhill.
According to stuff.co.nz, a third successive deficit was forecast as recently as May in 2019, largely due to the International Cricket Council rescheduling its back-ended annual payments of the US$128 million (NZ$199m) it vowed to NZC between 2016 and 2023. The bulk of this is expected to be settled after two big ICC tournaments hosted by India: the T20 Men’s World Cup in 2021 and 50-over World Cup in 2023. But the ICC have a way to get its work down during these testing times while also helping one of its underdog boards to come to the forefront.
With only two new COVID-19 cases in the entire nation after a COVID-free month and no home matches scheduled for some time, New Zealand is the safest haven in world cricket right now. Three months ago, SportsCafe had predicted that New Zealand cricket would survive the pandemic through their good old breezy ways. But the rest of the world, including their neighbours, are in a complete turmoil as the pandemic has come in the way of many schedules across cricketing boards.
The BCCI has been waiting on staging the cash-rich Indian Premier League season since March when it was originally scheduled to be held. England cricket are finally going to make some recovery, after bearing the losses for a delayed summer, but are still unsure if the new protocols will actually help them keep the virus from spreading. Coming to the neighbours, Cricket Australia, who had to bear major financial losses already, are reluctant to host the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in front of empty stands- given the fact that a lot of revenue is sourced from the audience.
Given the circumstances, cricket might want to give a chance to use its two-time World Cup finalists as a way to host major sporting events, in order to eliminate the chance of the virus contraction on-field or during the tour. Hence, Australia, who were also co-hosts of the 2015 World Cup, could turn to their almost COVID-free neighbours for help in hosting the T20 World Cup with the presence of a crowd.
A go back to the numbers, a country like New Zealand, who have the smallest population of any of the 12 Test nations, had annual revenue that is less than Surrey County Cricket Club. If teams like India, England visit New Zealand for a tour, it would help their board with a significant extra income from broadcast rights. Practically speaking, the scenic grounds in the Tasmanian island are also heavily known for being perfect for hosting T20 cricket which takes this deal to another level as the ICC has been taking a long time deciding the fate of the 2020 T20 World Cup, which is originally scheduled to be held in the October-November window. While the governing council is waiting on the big announcement, the BCCI are in a conundrum about staging a delayed season of the IPL in a potential September-October window.
In this scenario, New Zealand could be the solution to all problems cricket but to translate this possibility into practicality the board, too, need to prove a point. New Zealand haven’t had any games scheduled since the Plunket Shield was cancelled in March, and Wellington Firebirds were announced as champions. So New Zealand could be presenting a case for themselves if they manage to successfully host a few domestic matches. If that initial step is taken, the next foot shall fall on the top of the ladder.
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