Digesting this latest news out of NZC regarding another financial loss and a three-year broadcasting deal with Star Sports in India, is a complex task. It's kinda like what would happen when you chow down on some cereal for breakfast and your body spends the next few hours trying to process all that sugar and weird stuff, as opposed to a light dose of fruit, vegetables, eggs or even meat that flows right through your body as natural kai should, thus allowing you to attack your day with vigour.

Clarity comes when you think of the timing for either announcement. The broadcast deal with Star Sports comes out at the same time as NZC announcing hefty financial loss so that it appears like all is fine and dandy. Consider it a 'yeah, but...' moment where NZC come out with their financial loss and then say 'yeah, but... we signed this deal with Star Sports, cool huh!?'.

NZC served up another 'yeah, but...' moment in the same cluster of news as the financial loss was offset by David White saying that NZC will get more money from the ICC over the next eight years. To say that NZC will automatically be in a strong position as the ICC's hand-outs increase over time is crazy, there are so many variables that could result in expenses increasing for NZC, thus countering the influx of ICC money. Or, ya know, T20 Internationals might just stop being cool and then NZC's investment in this format will see them up shit's creek.

There are so many variables and those are just a few examples, but the most worrisome aspect is that NZC are relying on hand-outs to that extent. That's cool if your base level is a profitable business, yet NZC put up a $2.16mil loss last time around and now that's up to $9.3mil, so we have an organisation that is losing money and predicting their future based on hand-outs.

And this is in a super volatile cricketing landscape where we have no idea what cricket could look like in two years, five years, let alone eight years. Cricket is morphing into its next form and none of us no what this transition will result in, I'd suggest it's best to stay flexible and adapt to that transition. Not bogged down in debt, or tied to the future of a format.

While this is all complex with nuance after nuance, the whole point of NZC is to serve cricket in Aotearoa (not boost salaries of a few jokers). Cricket in Aotearoa can not be served to highest level - that it deserves - by an organisation that has shown nothing to suggest they are profitable. Profitable is crucial because those profits are re-invest into kiwi cricket. Not only has NZC lacked the nous to balance their books, their future depends on hand-outs; 'got any coins bro?'.

The broadcast deal with Star Sports also needs some context around it. Sony Pictures Networks had the last rights in India and Star Sports had Cricket Australia's rights, now SPN have signed with CA for six years and Star Sports have filled that void by signing with NZC for three years.

Maybe NZC need to look at their website content when they wonder why they are losing money, here are three horrible paragraphs for the national organisation:

A professional wrote that? Hmm. If you get past that, you'll note the PR being spin around this Star Sports deal where White believes it's exciting for kiwi cricketers to get on telly in the sub-continent, as if they weren't already? As if millions of people aren't watching kiwi cricket via all sorts of weird ways that the internet provides, as if Kane Williamson and Trent Boult weren't already deities in India? This isn't a huge deal, just an example of A) how out of touch NZC are and B) how these matters can be portrayed.

And of course, Star Sports aren't just interested in the Blackcaps and White Ferns. They have signed a three-year deal because India and Pakistan will come here twice during this time period, Bangladesh will also make the journey and funnily enough, India's women's team is coming as well. Given the number of sub-continent teams touring Aotearoa, I'm fairly confident in saying that whatever happened, kiwi cricketers were always going to be on telly in the sub-continent.

We don't know how much this deal is worth, any notable increase on previous deals would be positive. Because of NZC's precarious position, that money would be used to break even and not re-invested into women's domestic cricket, or live-streaming domestic cricket, or more 'A' tours for the men and some actual 'A' tours for women. This is what frustrates me the most as NZC's financial loss and inability to make anything close to a profit, hurts cricket in Aotearoa. If men's domestic cricket has close to no public profile (and the ability to pay bills) outside of the Niche Cache now, let alone women's domestic cricket, how can that change with NZC stacking up financial losses?

But that ICC hand-out's going to change everything.

I've got no insight into what kiwi cricketers want, I am however super intrigued by the upcoming 'Master Agreement' negotiations that will roll around mid-way through next year. Again, this isn't based on any insight, I'm just warning folks that players (men and women) may want far better conditions than they have right now.

Peace and love 27.

Hit an ad to show your support to the Niche Cache if you enjoyed the yarn. You'll be making a donation, so we can make a profit and then re-invest that profit back into creating more righteous sporting content, that youz deserve.

You can also help out by jumping on Patreon and becoming a Niche Cache Patron. That only costs $1 a month and you get exclusive content and goodies. Chur.