New Zealand Cricket, formerly the New Zealand Cricket Council, is the governing body for professional

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

Cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

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 International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World Cup ...

s with other nations. It also organises domestic cricket in New Zealand, including the

Plunket Shield New Zealand has had a domestic first-class cricket championship since the 1906–07 season. Since the 2009–10 season it has been known by its original name of the Plunket Shield. History The Plunket Shield competition was instigated in Octob ...

first-class competition,

The Ford Trophy The Ford Trophy is the main domestic List A limited overs cricket competition in New Zealand. Previous sponsor State Insurance did not renew naming rights in 2009, resulting in the competition being renamed the ''New Zealand Cricket one-day c ...

men's domestic one-day competition, the

Hallyburton Johnstone Shield The Hallyburton Johnstone Shield is the premier domestic women's one-day cricket competition in New Zealand. The tournament began in 1935–36, as a first-class competition, but is now played as a 50-over competition, with six provincial teams ...

women's domestic one-day competition, as well as the Men's Super Smash and

Women's Super Smash The Women's Super Smash, known for sponsorship reasons as the Dream11 Super Smash, is a women's Twenty20 cricket competition organised by New Zealand Cricket. The competition began in 2007–08 and features six teams, who play each other twice ...

domestic

Twenty20 Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single innin ...

competitions. David White is the Chief Executive Officer of New Zealand Cricket.

Kane Williamson Kane Stuart Williamson (born 8 August 1990) is a New Zealand cricketer who is currently the Captain (cricket), captain of the New Zealand national cricket team, New Zealand national team in limited overs cricket. He is considered as New Zealand' ...

is the current Black Caps captain in all forms of the game, succeeding

Brendon McCullum Brendon Barrie McCullum (born 27 September 1981) is a cricket coach, commentator and former cricketer representing New Zealand, who played all formats, including as captain. McCullum was renowned for his quick scoring, notably recording the f ...

who retired in 2016.

History

On 27 December 1894, 12 delegates from around New Zealand met in

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

to form the

New Zealand Cricket Council New Zealand Cricket, formerly the New Zealand Cricket Council, 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 Z ...

Heathcote Williams John Henley Heathcote-Williams (15 November 1941 – 1 July 2017), known as Heathcote Williams, was an English poet, actor, political activist and dramatist. He wrote a number of book-length polemical poems including ''Autogeddon'', ''Falling ...

was elected the inaugural president, and Charles Smith the secretary. The council's aims were to promote and co-ordinate cricket in New Zealand and to organize international tours from and to New Zealand.

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 before taking up the head coach position in December 2010. Former Australian Coach John Buchanan was appointed as NZC Director of Cricket in May 2011 as the architect of our new high performance programme. He will perform a number of key duties including the establishment of clear and consistent national coaching philosophies, implement a talent identification programme and oversee the Selection Panel.

has many private

academies. The Bracewell Cricket Academy based at

Rathkeale College "Nothing is impossible for mortal man" , type = trinity school single sex boys (Years 9–13) , established = 1963; years ago , address = Willow Park Drive, Masterton, Wellington Region, New Zealand , coordinates = , principal ...

is one of the largest cricket academies, providing an Overseas Cricket Development Programme, a Pre-Season Coaching Camp and a Festival of Cricket. There are over 100,000 registered cricketers in New Zealand. By way of comparison, Australia and the UK have around 500,000 each. According to Mark O'Neill, New Zealand's batting coach from 2007 to 2009, the competition at club level in NZ is nowhere near as intense as in Australia.

"In
Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
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 n 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."

Domestic competitions

New Zealand Cricket operates the

New Zealand cricket team The New Zealand national cricket team represents New Zealand in men's international cricket. Named the Black Caps, they played their first Test in 1930 against England in Christchurch, becoming the fifth country to play Test cricket. From 1930 ...

, organising Test tours and

s with other nations. It also organises domestic cricket in New Zealand, including the

first-class competition,

men's domestic one-day competition, the

women's domestic one-day competition, as well as the Men's Super Smash and

domestic

competitions.

Men's Teams

New Zealand Cricket involves the following men's domestic teams: *

Auckland Aces The Auckland cricket team represent the Auckland region and are one of six New Zealand domestic first class cricket teams. Governed by the Auckland Cricket Association they are the most successful side having won 28 Plunket Shield titles, ten ...

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. ...

(known as Canterbury Kings for Twenty20) *

Central Stags The Central Stags, formerly known as Central Districts, are a first-class cricket team based in central New Zealand. They are the men's representative side of the Central Districts Cricket Association. They compete in the Plunket Shield firs ...

Northern Districts The Northern Districts men's cricket team are one of six New Zealand first-class cricket teams that make up New Zealand Cricket. They are based in the northern half of the North Island of New Zealand (excluding Auckland). They compete in the ...

(known as Northern Brave for Twenty20) * Otago Volts *

Wellington Firebirds The Wellington Firebirds are one of six New Zealand men's first-class cricket teams that make up New Zealand Cricket. It is based in Wellington. It competes in the Plunket Shield first class (4-day) competition, The Ford Trophy domestic one ...

Women's Teams

New Zealand Cricket involves the following women's domestic teams: * Auckland Hearts *

Canterbury Magicians The Canterbury Magicians is the women's representative cricket team for the New Zealand region of Canterbury. They play their home games at Hagley Oval, Christchurch. They compete in the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield one-day competition and the ...

Central Hinds The Central Hinds are the women's representative cricket team of the Central Districts Cricket Association, based in central New Zealand. They play their home games at Pukekura Park, New Plymouth, McLean Park, Napier, Fitzherbert Park, Palmersto ...

(known as Northern Brave for Twenty20) *

Otago Sparks The Otago Sparks is the women's representative cricket team for the New Zealand region of Otago and the surrounding area. They play their home games at University Oval, Dunedin. They compete in the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield one-day competit ...

Wellington Blaze The Wellington Blaze is the women's representative cricket team for the New Zealand city of Wellington. They play their home games at Basin Reserve. They compete in the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield one-day competition and the Women's Super Smas ...

Funding

New Zealand Cricket derives most of its revenue from the sale of two types of broadcasting rights. # Broadcasting rights to home internationals. # A share of the

broadcasting rights Broadcasting rights (often also called media rights) are rights which a broadcasting organization negotiates with a commercial concern - such as a sports governing body or film distributor - in order to show that company's products on television o ...

the ICC sells to its tournaments, such as the World Cup. Host nations pick up all the expenses of touring teams, but get sole access to all broadcast rights and gate receipts. 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 Sony Entertainment Television (SET) is an Indian Hindi-language general entertainment pay television channel, that was launched on 30 September 1995, and is owned by Culver Max Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese Sony. SET India's ...

. 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 tour of NZ in 2009. Immediately prior to the 2009 Indian tour of NZ the ''Sunday Star Times'' reported that "NZ Cricket hits $25m jackpot". The article claimed that NZ Cricket will get $1 million for each of the 22 days the Indians take the field and that NZ Cricket had insured against loss of income for the sale of TV rights due to bad weather. NZC boss Justin Vaughan also said that a tour by India generates "many times" more income than tours by

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

and

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and that the Indian tour was worth more to NZC than the payout from the

Cricket World Cup The Cricket World Cup (officially known as ICC Men's Cricket World Cup) is the international championship of One Day International (ODI) cricket. The event is organised by the sport's governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), e ...

, which was around $20m. The article also states that over the past two years, NZC's income has been around $30m, but this year (2009) Vaughan is hoping to get more than $40 million from broadcast rights, sponsorship and ticket sales. In 2007, the ICC sold the rights to broadcast the World Cup, the Champions Trophy and the

ICC World Twenty20 The ICC Men's T20 World Cup (earlier known as ICC World Twenty20) is the international championship of Twenty20. Organised by cricket's governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), the tournament consists of 16 teams, comprising t ...

ESPN Star Sports Fox Sports (formerly ESPN Star Sports) was a pan-Asian pay television network broadcasting in Asia, operated by Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company (Southeast Asia) Pte. Ltd. It also oversaw a version of Sta ...

until 2015 for US$1 billion.

NZC New Zealand Cricket, formerly the New Zealand Cricket Council, 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 Z ...

will receive a slice of that. In November 2017,

Star Sports Star Sports refers to several current or former Asian sports networks owned by The Walt Disney Company: * Star Sports (East Asian TV channel) * Star Sports (Indian TV network) * Fox Sports (Southeast Asian TV network) Fox Sports (formerly ESPN ...

acquired the broadcast and digital rights for New Zealand Cricket for all men's and women's international matches being organised in the country till April 2020 for the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia.

Partnership with USA Cricket (2010)

On 19 December 2010, after months of negotiations, New Zealand Cricket announced it had signed a business deal with

USACA The United States of America Cricket Association (USACA), headquartered at Miami Beach, was the national governing body for all cricket in the United States, until it was replaced by USA Cricket in 2019. The board was formed in 1965. USACA w ...

which would see New Zealand play a certain number of games in the US and also make its players available to participate in any

leagues in the USA. A new company was created called Cricket Holdings America LLC. This new company will hold the rights to hold Twenty20 leagues within the United States. New Zealand Cricket chief Justin Vaughan said he was happy with the development because New Zealand was a small market and to exploit a market will allow New Zealand Cricket to secure its funding in the long-term and will also allow cricket to develop popularity as a game in the United States of America.

References

External links

New Zealand Cricket websiteOfficial Facebook pageBlack Caps website
{{Authority control

Cricket administration in New Zealand