New Zealand Cricket

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NZC redirects here. For the award for bravery, see New Zealand Cross

New Zealand Cricket, formerly the New Zealand Cricket Board, is the governing body for professional cricket in New Zealand. Cricket is the most popular and highest profile summer sport in New Zealand.

New Zealand Cricket operates the New Zealand cricket team, organising Test tours and One Day Internationals with other nations. It also organises domestic cricket in New Zealand, including the State Championship first-class competition, the State Shield domestic one-day competition and The Twenty20 competition

Justin Vaughan is the current Chief Executive Officer of New Zealand Cricket. The national captain is Daniel Vettori

Contents

[edit] Teams

New Zealand Cricket involves the following first-class teams:

[edit] Cricket development

New Zealand Cricket has established High Performance Cricket training centre based at Lincoln University. It also operates a grassroots development programme for school children called 'MILO Kiwi Cricket' . John Wright, former NZ opening batsman, was appointed acting high performance manager for NZC in November 2007.

New Zealand has many private cricket academies and the Bracewell Cricket Academy based at Rathkeale College is one of the largest cricket academies, providing an Overseas Cricket Development Programme, a Pre-Season Coaching Camp, a Festival of Cricket.

There are around 100,000 registered cricketers in New Zealand. By way of comparison, Australia and the U.K. have around 500,000 each.[1][2] According to Mark O'Neill, New Zealand's batting coach from 2007-09, the competition at club level in NZ is nowhere near as intense as in Australia.

"In Sydney there are 20 first grade teams, each club has five grades. To get to first grade you've got to be a friggin' good player and once you get there the competition is very, very fierce. Unfortunately it's not the same standard [in NZ]. Competition is everything and the only way the New Zealand guys are going to get that is to play the world's best players."[3]

[edit] Funding

New Zealand Cricket derives most of its revenue from the sale of 2 types of broadcasting rights.

  1. Broadcasting rights to home internationals.
  2. A share of the broadcasting rights the ICC sells to its tournments, such as the World Cup.

In November 2007 it was announced that NZC had made a 5-year deal for the broadcasting rights to home internationals for NZ$65.4m with Sony Entertainment Television. The previous four-year deal between NZC and ESPN-Star was for only NZ$14.4m. Part of the 5-fold increase in value is due to the Indian team's scheduled tour of NZ in 2009.

Ealier in 2007, the ICC sold the rights to broadcast the World Cup, the Champions Trophy and the Twenty20 World Championships to ESPN-Star until 2015 for US$1 billion. NZC will receive a slice of that.

25 per cent of NZC's revenue goes to pay player salaries. Before the latest deal the No 1-ranked player received a retainer of NZ$128,000. The retainers drop by NZ$5000 for each ranking until No 17-20, who each received a retainer of NZ$48,000. Players also received NZ$6000 per test, NZ$2500 per one-day international and NZ$1500 for a Twenty20 international.

As a result of the new 5-year deal, player payments may increase by a third, meaning that NZ cricketers may be paid as much as the All Blacks.[4] Top-tier All Blacks are paid around NZ$500,000 per year by the NZRU and their provincial teams.[5]

In addition, the Indian Premier League has signed up five New Zealanders for the folowng amounts: Stephen Fleming NZ$350,000, Daniel Vettori US$625,000, Jacob Oram US$675,000, Brendon McCullum US$700,000 and Scott Styris US$175,000 for a couple of months cricket. Only Shane Warne is paid more than Stephen Fleming.[6]

[edit] "Banned" Players

Former Black Caps Chris Cairns, Nathan Astle, Chris Harris, Craig McMillan, Hamish Marshall and Darryl Tuffey who recently played in the "rebel" Indian Cricket League have been effectively "banned" from ever playing for NZ again. This of course assumes that they are available for selection. Chris Cairns for one, retired at a Twenty20 match against the West Indies in 2006.

Justin Vaughan NZ Cricket CEO, perhaps with one eye on the legal ramifications, does not use the "b" word but prefers terms such as; "the selectors will be encouraged to consider other players", or "overlooked for selection". It also appears that the players will not be able to hold a contract from their provinces but will be allowed to play on a game by game basis.[7]

In January, 2008 it was announced that Shane Bond had signed a US$800,000 a year contract to play for the ICL for 3 years . Bond's agent Leanne McGoldrick said that Bond intended to honour his contract with NZ cricket until May 2008. However, NZC will "overlook Bond for selection" because all members of the ICC have agreed not to pick players who have signed for the rebel leagues. NZC will not jeopardise its relationship with the ICC, as it relies heavily on them for funding.[8]

In September 1977, Tony Greig, Mike Procter and John Snow with support from Kerry Packer contested the bans they had been subjected to by the TCCB for playing in World Series Cricket in the English high court. The court ruled that the bans were a restraint of trade and therefore illegal.[9]

On January 29, 2008, the New Zealand Herald stated that Bond, who wants to play in the upcoming series against England, and NZ Cricket was released from his NZC contract and will not be chosen on a game-by-game basis. Bond appears to have given up on legal action for restraint of trade.[10]

Heath Mills, the executive manager of the New Zealand Cricket Players Association (NZCPA), was not so conciliatory. He accused NZC of acting to appease the Indian board (BCCI). Mills described the ICC operating manual regulation that purports to not allow [ICC members] to release players to participate in non-sanctioned events as restraint of trade.[11]

Mills also said :

"The NZCPA fully understands the position NZC has found itself and we do not want them to damage relationships with the BCCI and other ICC members. However, pressure to preserve these relationships should not be placed above preserving New Zealand's right to select its best players to represent the Black Caps, the rights and aspirations of New Zealand citizens to represent their country and the legal rights of players under their signed playing contracts. Given the issues Bond has decided to stand aside from international cricket at NZC's request. The NZCPA supports this decision as it enables him to preserve a strong relationship with the board of NZC in the hope that he can again contribute to the game in New Zealand at some stage in the future. However, this is not a decision that he was compelled to make and under our contract system negotiated with NZC it remains open for any player to play for a third party like the ICL and still remain contracted to and play for NZC. It is this situation that leaves the NZCPA concerned for cricket in New Zealand. We urge the ICC to step in and attempt to influence this situation and find a way to manage third party investment in our sport before we lose more players both here and around the world, and international cricket has been damaged further. History has shown that professional sports cannot afford to become split. It is absolutely vital that international cricket remains the pinnacle of the sport and that we ensure the best players are playing."

In any event, Bond himself has said that due to the risk of injury he no longer wants to play test cricket for NZ.[12]

[edit] References

  1. ^ how many cricket players are there throughout the UK[1]
  2. ^ Hot for it[2]
  3. ^ Cricket: The Aussie with hard words for our top order[3]
  4. ^ Cricket deal to rival rugby[4]
  5. ^ Dan Carter open to offers from UK [5]
  6. ^ Whopper payouts will test team spirit [6]
  7. ^ NZ Cricket bans six rebels [7]
  8. ^ Bond to cash in as rebel[8]
  9. ^ See World Series Cricket - Court Case[9]
  10. ^ Cricket: Mills fears for future after Bond's exit[10]
  11. ^ New Zealand board attacked for Bond decision[11]
  12. ^ Bond's leaving fuels fears for cricket[12]

[edit] External links

v • d • e
New Zealand cricket seasons
v • d • e
Full Members of the International Cricket Council