NZC breaking new ground with MLC investment as they look to have partnership in potential expansion later on.
NZC breaking new ground as it seeks to enter into partnership with a substantial MLC investment.
After partnering with Major League Cricket (MLC) to establish one of the competition’s new franchises in 2027, NZC became the first national governing body to make a direct investment in an international T20 league.
In 2027, MLC will have eight teams instead of its current six, and by 2031, there are plans to expand even more, maybe including a franchise in Canada.
The conditions have been reached, and NZC has invested. One of the new franchises will be operated by True North Sports (TNS), a US-based company that will be managed by Sameer Mehta and Vijay Srinivasan, co-founders of MLC. 49ers Enterprises is one of the private equity investors in TNS, according to a NZC statement.
As a result, NZC will have a stake in the team and have the option to purchase a second franchise in the future. It will also pay for high-performance and operational support, such as coaching, management, and support personnel, and it will integrate the franchise into New Zealand’s domestic high-performance system. NZC will contribute knowledge of cricket infrastructure and turf maintenance in a subsequent stage of development.
At the first MLC launch in 2023, Victoria and New South Wales teamed with the San Francisco Unicorns and Washington Freedom, respectively, but NZC’s agreement goes far further.
In light of the quickly evolving scenario, NZC CEO Scott Weenink stated that it was critical that the sport go outside conventional revenue streams.
“We put in place a five-year strategic plan in the middle of last year and one of the things that came clearly out of that was the need to try and diversify away from a reliance on just broadcast revenue and ICC distributions. New Zealand Cricket, like most member boards, is heavily reliant on those two aspects.
“At the moment, we don’t have our own franchise cricket tournament. We have the Super Smash, which we own, and is seen more as a tournament to help develop Black Caps and White Ferns. And we’re currently looking at what we do with that, but also part of our strategic plan was looking to diversify our revenue streams to pay for and invest in our high-performance community and pathways. One of which was looking at what we did with overseas domestic franchises.”