NZ Cricket backs ‘vital’ $5 million investment
It costs $4-5 million to stage a season of New Zealand domestic cricket; the vast majority of those matches played in empty grounds.
Then there’s 90 contracted player payments on top of the bills for flights, hotels and venue hire.
As the first red Kookaburra of the Plunket Shield season is fired down tomorrow morning in Mt Maunganui, Nelson and Christchurch, the question looms again: is it all worth it?
New Zealand Cricket’s chief operating officer Anthony Crummy - essentially David White’s second-in-charge at Auckland HQ - certainly thinks so as this five-and-a-half month roadshow cranks into gear.
‘‘In its own right it’s not a profit making venture but on the big scale it’s vital to our overall performance financially,’’ Crummy said.
There are two key priorities: preparing first-class cricketers for the international game, and developing the Twenty20 competition into an ‘‘entertainment brand’’ which draws families back to cricket grounds in December-January. Both have proved troublesome. What’s now known as the McDonald’s Twenty20 Super Smash runs from December 4 till the final on January 7. Mercifully it was shifted from November which rights holder Sky Television paid extra for in a quiet month for live content - but was marred by fickle weather and empty stadiums.
As crowds flock to full stadiums across the Tasman, it’s the million dollar question how to draw New Zealand fans back to domestic T20. Bangladesh series opener in Christchurch on Boxing Day).
First it’s Plunket Shield for five successive weeks.
The 3-0 test series hammering in India raised some questions: is domestic form given enough relevance by the national selectors; is the standard high enough and are the pitches too good?
Crummy answers an emphatic yes to the first two, and scratches the head for question three after the New Zealand batsmen were again spun out in India.
Accepted practice in four-day cricket now is win the toss and bowl, expect some assistance for the seamers early then back yourself to chase down anything on the final day on a pitch that just gets better. In the subcontinent it’s the opposite.
Domestic coaches discussed banning the heavy roller between innings with the idea it would help the pitch deteriorate naturally, but NZC didn’t agree. Playing conditions and the batting and bowling points system (maximum four points for each; and 12 for an outright victory) remain unchanged.
‘‘We look at our local tracks and they might be too good. It’s a fine balance and certainly one we’ve got to keep looking at,’’ Crummy said.
Coach Mike Hesson is chief Black Caps selector with assistance from Gavin Larsen. How much weight is placed on domestic performances remains debatable.
Opener Jeet Raval scored heavily for Auckland last summer, was summoned to Africa in July but is yet to make his test debut. Canterbury’s Todd Astle is consistently the best Plunket Shield spinner (47 wickets at 25 last season; 44 wickets at 24 in 2014-15) but remains a one-test cricketer, in that win over Sri Lanka in Colombo in 2012.
With Pakistan arriving for two tests in Christchurch (November 17) and Hamilton (November 25), players would hope to have some incentive for early season form. Particularly in light of recent test performances where batting and bowling were equally worrying.