NZ Cricket to declare $9.3m loss

New Zealand Cricket has revealed a $9.3 million financial loss for the past year as it trumpets its biggest broadcast rights deal with Star Sports India.

Chief executive David White confirmed the hefty deficit in the annual report which will be presented at the AGM next Wednesday. It was well up on last year’s $2.16 million loss and significantly more than the budgeted deficit of $5.7 million.

White said NZC faced a ‘‘challenging couple of years’’ but explained the loss was largely due to the International Cricket Council’s new financial model.

In the eight years till 2023, NZC’s slice of ICC funding would increase from US$90 million to

US$128 million but it was a case of less now, more later.

‘‘That’s been a big jump for us but what was agreed was that we get less up front, than was forecast in the old model, and a lot more to the back end of that agreement,’’ White said. ‘‘That shortfall is primarily the increase but we make up for it significantly in future years.’’

Still, a loss of nearly $10 million for NZC, whose revenue of $48.7 million was nearly $4m down on last year, is always going to raise eyebrows.

In the annual report, grants to major associations and domestic players payments were up $650,000 to $16.2 million, match and tour expenses up $500,000 to just over

$5m and the player payment pool increased $600,000 to $8.17m.

White said gate takings, which typically make up 10 per cent of NZC’s revenue, were down last summer when the marquee tour by South Africa was hit by the weather.

This summer, with Australia and England playing Twenty20 internationals in New Zealand and England playing the country’s inaugural day-night test at Eden Park, White said early sales were strong and he was confident the coffers would get a boost.

He confirmed $50,000 had been spent by the organisation on a rebrand from Black Caps to NZC, in order to be more inclusive of women’s, domestic and community cricket.

White wouldn’t say what the Star Sports deal was worth but he labelled it ‘‘significant’’, and bigger than any broadcasting deal they’d done before.

Star Sports can broadcast Black Caps and White Ferns home internationals for the next three years, with India’s two tours of New Zealand in that period a key driver of the lucrative deal.

White said India would tour New Zealand in 2018-19 and play three Twenty20 internationals and five one-day internationals.

The following season India would play two tests - as part of the new test championship - three ODIs and five T20s in New Zealand to lead into the World T20 in Australia in 2020.