New Zealand Cricket (NZC) is set to step into a historic endeavour by launching a franchise team in 2027 that will compete at the Major League Cricket (MLC) with support from NFL franchise San Francisco 49ers.
The NZC has signed agreement with US-based consortium True North Sports Ventures (TNS) in what will be an unprecedented overseas franchise investment for a national governing body. With this, NZC has become the first national cricket board to directly invest in an overseas T20 league. As per a statement from the NZC, the cricket board will provide “high-performance and operational support” to the new MLC franchise “including coaching, management, and support staff, as well as integrating the franchise into NZC’s domestic high-performance ecosystem”.The franchise will be headed by MLC co-founders Vijay Srinivasan and Sameer Mehta and include backers such as the 49ers Enterprises, the investment wing of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers.However, the name and the home city of the new franchise has not yet been decided. Atlanta in Georgia and the Canadian city of Toronto are being considered for the same. The latest opportunity for NZC comes up with an option to invest in a second MLC franchise, earmarked for 2031, with the possibility a franchise based in Canada. “As franchise cricket grows globally, NZC needs to adapt to seize strategic opportunities that ensure the sustainability of our cricket network,” said NZC chief executive Scott Weenink.”This helps diversify our revenue streams, expands our global brand and fan base, and creates new talent development and retention pathways for both our players and coaches,” he added. The Major League Cricket (MLC), launched in 2023 as a six-team T20 league, is all set for the third edition of the league taking place from 12 June to 13 July across venues in Dallas, Florida and Oakland. The league plans to increase the number of teams to eight in 2027. In the inaugural edition of the MLC, Australia’s state associations New South Wales and Victoria partnered with Washington Freedom and San Francisco Unicorns respectively in 2023 but the depth of NZC’s deal goes significantly further.More Investment Plans Weenink, however, emphasised that their new investment plan would not take the focus away from the game development in New Zealand. “It is additional funding and revenue, which we will then be able to invest in our high-performance community and pathways game in New Zealand,” he said. “We don’t see by making this investment in an overseas league as meaning we’re not going to invest further in our own Super Smash, or other leagues. We see this as complementary because we see it as an opportunity to generate revenue, to enable us to actually invest in our network, and in particular, our leagues.”Weenink also said that they were considering investment options for their domes league Super Smash, while keeping the option of making a fresh investment in the Big Bash League (BBL) should the tournament in Australia expand. The current BBL structure will be reviewed to assess the future options.