Timing everything as cricket hits rugby for six
National game might cast envious gaze at the relatively well-placed position of the summer game as coronavirus bites hard
At the turn of the 20th century a bunch of cricket enthusiasts negotiated to buy a piece of land not far from Cabbage Tree Swamp, cleared it, drained it and started the Eden Cricket Club.
About 10 years later the Auckland Rugby Football Union decided it liked the look of Eden Park and signed a lease to share the ground.
It was probably the last time rugby officials coveted anything their cricketing brethren had.
Until now.
To say rugby has been the dominant code in New Zealand is to say that April follows March: it’s just always been that way.
Through a combination of fortunate timing, happenstance and a serendipitous gamble, cricket is far better placed to ride out this Covid-19 crisis than rugby. For the first time in many generations, rugby administrators will be casting their eyes towards New Zealand Cricket and thinking: “Man, I wish we were standing in their shoes.”
The most obvious advantage cricket has in this mess is pure timing.
The cricket financial year runs from August 1 to July 31. The national body’s finances are secure until then at least, so it will have no need to ask players to take wage cuts like the winter codes have. It might come back on the agenda in July, but it has time to mitigate the impact.
NZ Cricket had finished the bulk of its summer programme before the travel restrictions that have curtailed top-level sport came into play. Most importantly, from a broadcast income point of view, the series against India was completed.
Cancelled Black Caps and White Ferns’ tours this winter will also, ironically, help the balance sheet.
“We’ve been very fortunate in the timing of the crisis,” NZC chief executive David White said yesterday. “We’d all but completed our season. I feel for the winter codes . . . but we may face similar challenges in the months ahead.” While the ChappellHadlee Trophy matches against Australia were not completed, they always appealed as a tack-on to the season and broadcast content involving India is where the riches of the sport lie.
The Plunket Shield was not completed, but this would have saved NZC money rather than cost it.
That is another big advantage NZC has over New Zealand Rugby in this unique situation. With the possible exception of the low-key Super Smash, anything below international cricket in New Zealand is treated as a development competition. There are minimal wage and infrastructure costs with domestic cricket.
The disparity is best illustrated by this: the Heartland Championship, the fourth tier of New Zealand rugby, costs more to run than the entire domestic cricket programme.
Rugby’s domestic landscape has to change. The questions are where and by how much.
The most interesting statement NZ Rugby boss Mark Robinson made this week was the thing he nearly said.
“These decisions are about protecting the core capability of the
Super Rugby clubs so that they are ready to hit the ground running if Super Rugby resumes later this year,” he said of the $250,000 emergency grants to the franchises, “and also be in a position to revive and participate in Super Rugby in whatever shape it takes in 2021 and beyond.”
It’s the last bit of that which is intriguing, most specifically the
“whatever shape it takes” bit. That’s a very un-NZR-like hedging of bets. It’s entirely sensible, given the circumstances, yet this is not an organisation that is known for using shades of grey when it can paint it black.
The subtext is that Super rugby will never look the same again, and that goes beyond the umpteenth format change that was to be rolled out in 2021.
There is a growing realisation Southern Hemisphere rugby will be changed forever as a result of Covid19. The fragile edifice of the sport had taken on a lean anyway, but March
2020 will be the tipping point. Rugby Australia is deep in a financial crevasse from which it may not be able to climb out of. It just announced a $10 million loss on its
2019 operation and stands to lose $120m in lost revenue from 2020. An alarming 75 per cent of employees have been stood down and they have no broadcaster wanting to pay within even ballpark range of what they value their product at.
If RA survives this, you suspect it is not going to be in any position to send Super Rugby franchises globetrotting around the world, particularly when they’re struggling to attract five-figure crowds to home fixtures; a sustainable, attractive local competition will take immediate priority.
South African rugby bosses have used classic passive-aggressive messaging for years around their ability to align with Europe. It is common knowledge that the only reason South Africa has stayed in Sanzaar is because they value the guarantee of two to three All Black tests per year so highly. It would be no surprise to see them walk away when the lockdown ends.
NZ Rugby is going to have to be more inward focused, or look to strengthen alliances with moneyed friends ( Japan appeals as the most likely option given the fact advertising agency Dentsu is a big player in the proposed revamped Top League and the owner of New Zealand’s largest player agency, Halo Sports).
NZ Cricket simply doesn’t have a domestic imperative it needs to panic about. It’s wheels are greased almost entirely by broadcast and ICC pinnacle event dividends.
While most of NZ Cricket’s good fortune revolves around timing, it has also gambled well.
Last year it broke with long-time broadcast partner Sky to sign with Spark Sport. The move was panned by many critics at the time but it now looks like a masterstroke.
Like many media companies, Sky is suffering badly. Subscriptions have plummeted as Big Sport has shut down and analysts are questioning how much runway it has before it has to stop paying its sporting partners.
Spark’s deep pockets provide fortification for its digital sports platform and White was bullish about the partnership, which officially began on Wednesday.
“It’s going to open up a whole new audience for us,” he said.
NZ Rugby on the other hand, has already seen the value of its five per cent equity stake in Sky, also signed last year, fall through the floor.
There is another piece of good fortune NZ Cricket has over rugby. White has been in the CEO’s role for eight years. Like former NZ Rugby CEO Steve Tew, he might not be everybody’s cup of tea within the sport, but this is not his first rodeo.
Robinson, on the other hand, might end up being the greatest administrator the game has seen, but Covid-19 is one hell of an induction programme.
NZ Cricket has thus far been able to avoid the mess.
For once, rugby wishes it was cricket.
Through a combination of fortunate timing, happenstance and a serendipitous gamble, cricket is far better placed to ride out this Covid-19 crisis than rugby.