The New Zealand Cricket governing body has secured the largest broadcast revenue ever paid out to a national sporting organisation from India’s ongoing tour of the country, according to the Fairfax Media news agency.
NZC chief executive David White said broadcast rights for the present Indian tour were worth more than the then record NZ$25m (€15.2m/$20.7m) that the organisation secured from India’s last tour in 2009. He would not confirm a figure but Fairfax placed it at more than NZ$35m.
The India tour is part of an eight-year international broadcast contract between NZC and the Pitch International agency, which was struck in 2012. White said rights from the current Indian tour and the scheduled 2019 visit represented 60 per cent of NZC’s promised global broadcast revenue from Pitch for the period of 2012 until 2020.
“We have an international broadcast contract with Pitch International where we've agreed to receive annual income of the same amount so it is spread over the eight years,” White said. “Previous contracts were very much based tour-by-tour. This way makes it a bit easier to manage your business cash flow. But it's fair to say of the contract, the two Indian tours make up about 60 percent of the value. It's significant.”
New Zealand secured a 4-0 win in a five-game one-day international series which concluded on January 31. The first of two Test matches between the countries commences in Auckland on Thursday.