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Sports Edge Analysis
Why New Zealand Cricket Walked Away From America
New Zealand Cricket has dropped its plan to help launch a Major League Cricket team. The numbers behind the decision show how fragile the finances of smaller cricket boards are.
A quick note before we start. Cricket led yesterday's Snapshots too, and we don't usually run the same sport two days in a row. This one earns it. It is the clearest case study this year of how small boards are caught between private T20 money and their dependence on India.
The Story:
On 20 October, New Zealand Cricket (NZC) and US-based True North Sports Ventures (TNS) agreed to end the partnership announced in April 2025 (NZC). The plan was to launch a Major League Cricket (MLC) team in 2027, with NZC providing high-performance and operational support.
Chief executive Geoff Allott, who took over on 1 July, said "following further evaluation of the opportunity, we don't think the timing is right for us to be taking this on". He confirmed NZC had invested no capital (Reuters).
When it was announced, ESPN described the deal as the first time a full ICC member had agreed to invest directly in an overseas T20 league. TNS is run by MLC co-founders Sameer Mehta and Vijay Srinivasan, and its investors include 49ers Enterprises. NZC also had an option on a second team in 2031. Toronto and Atlanta were among the cities considered. Sport Nation reports that ending the deal was one of Allott's early decisions as chief executive.
At the same time, NZC has pushed back NZ20, the new men's and women's T20 league that will replace the Super Smash. Its launch moves from January 2027 to December 2027.
The Numbers:
(All figures are New Zealand dollars, and NZC's financial year runs to 31 July.)
→ FY24: a surplus of NZ$8m→ FY25: a surplus of NZ$2.2m, against a forecast deficit of NZ$6.8m. Reserves were a record NZ$37m→ FY26: a preliminary deficit of NZ$7.3m, against a budgeted NZ$1.8m. NZC gave three causes:
budgeting for broadcast revenue it had already received in earlier years
lower income from Dream11 after India changed its gambling laws
higher costs
The audit is due in early November and the final figure may differ.→ FY27: a forecast surplus of more than NZ$10m, "driven largely by the broadcast and commercial revenue generated by the in-bound tour by India.”→ The India tour: 12 matches from today to 1 December, the largest tour in NZC history by number of matches.→ Super Smash: only 24 of its 64 matches will be broadcast in its final season, after title sponsor Dream11 left.
The Chart:
NZC's annual result in NZ$ millions, years to 31 July. FY26 is preliminary and unaudited, with the audit due in early November. FY27 is NZC's forecast of a surplus above NZ$10m. Source: NZC
New Zealand Cricket chief executive Geoff Allott has his own word for the board's finances. "We are acutely aware that as a business our financial model over a four-year cycle is typically lumpy, so we need to be prudent to ensure the long-term sustainability of cricket," he said in August.
The chart shows what lumpy looks like. NZC made a surplus of NZ$8m in FY24 and NZ$2.2m in FY25. It then fell to a preliminary deficit of NZ$7.3m in FY26, 4.1 times its NZ$1.8m budget. It now forecasts a surplus above NZ$10m in FY27, driven largely by India's tour.
Add the four years together and NZC is at least NZ$12.9m in surplus (Sports Edge calculation, including the preliminary FY26 figure and the FY27 forecast). So the board is solvent over a full cycle. But the year it moves from loss to profit is the year India visits. That is not a model NZC controls.
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Why It Matters:
For cricket boards: the choice is between owning a share of someone else's league and building your own. NZC has chosen home. The Australian states of New South Wales and Victoria still partner Washington Freedom and San Francisco Unicorns, but NZC's deal went deeper than theirs (ESPNcricinfo).
For players: Finn Allen, Lockie Ferguson, Adam Milne, Tim Seifert and Mark Chapman are on casual contracts for 2026-27 (ICC). Michael Bracewell has moved to a casual deal to play a full BBL season (cricket.com.au). Captain Mitchell Santner turned down a BBL deal and said "We aren't going to keep up with the money for some of these other opportunities going around" (Reuters).
For investors: MLC loses a national-board partner that would have supplied players, coaching and operational know-how. MLC still says it plans to grow from six teams to 10 (Reuters).
For Asia: India is the hidden shareholder in every smaller board. One tour is forecast to move NZC from loss to profit, and an Indian law change took away a title sponsor. The Hong Kong Sixes, from 30 October to 1 November (Discover Hong Kong), will stream in India exclusively on FanCode (MediaBrief). The Indian audience underpins that event too.
The Sports Edge Take:
Stepping back is probably the right call, but it is not a strategy. The uncomfortable truth is in the chart. A board that can miss its budget by NZ$5.5m one year and then rely on one visiting team for a NZ$17m turnaround does not control its own finances.
MLC was one of the few ways NZC could earn from the franchise economy its own players are already moving into. Without it, everything rests on NZ20, which has already slipped by almost a year.
The key risk is a double miss: no US stake and no modern home league, while more players go casual. Smaller boards across Asia, Hong Kong's included, should note this. Before you sell your expertise to someone else's league, make sure your own event can stand on its own.
What to Watch Next:
Today, 22 October: India's tour opens with the first T20I in Christchurch.
30 October to 1 November: the Hong Kong Sixes at Tin Kwong Road.
Early November: NZC's audit confirms the FY26 result.
1 December: India's tour ends.
December 2027: NZ20's revised launch date.
