NZC to earn windfall from India series
India’s tour of New Zealand is going to fetch the country’s cricket board a windfall with more than USD 25 million expected from a multimillion-dollar deal for television rights.
India’s tour of New Zealand is going to fetch the country’s cricket board a windfall with more than USD 25 million expected from a multimillion-dollar deal for television rights.
The New Zealand cricket board is likely to pocket USD one million each for the 22 days the Indians are to take to the field, making the deal the biggest in the country’s sporting history.
NZC chief Justin Vaughan did not give out the exact details but admitted a tour by India generates “many times” more income than tours by Australia, South Africa and England.
“I doubt we’ve had a bigger year than the one that’s in front of us,” Vaughan said adding, it was even bigger than the one they had from the Cricket World Cup, which was around USD 20m.
However, Vaughan also made it clear that it was important New Zealand performed well on the field to attract lucrative deals in future.
“This (India) series is as important as any I can remember. The tour is important on so many levels, obviously financially, but we cannot emphasise enough how important it is for us to do well against them on the field,” Vaughan was quoted as saying in Stuff.co.nz.
"This Indian team rates itself extremely highly and if we are competitive against them then the levels of respect New Zealand gets in terms of international credibility will increase that’s really important as we look at the planning of the Future Tour Programme beyond 2012.
“To have some influence over that (Future Tours Programme) people have to understand that we’re a serious player. We can’t always rely on good relationships with England and Australia we have to be able to prove it on the field as well. Because an Indian tour is so important for our finances, we’d like an Indian tour to come in the next four-year cycle,” he said.