New World Cup hosting deal could see NZ earn more revenue but host less matches

Wellington, May 5(ANI): The New Zealand Cricket board (NZC) has accepted a new deal over hosting the cricket World Cup in 2015, which would see a 68-32 per cent revenue split in favour of Australia, and will almost see a reduction in matches played in New Zealand.

The original agreement had 48 World Cup matches split 50-50 between New Zealand and Australia, and the two countries running separate tournaments, looking after their own books till the final.

NZC believes the new revenue split will be a financial bonus because of Australia's bigger stadiums and their stronger dollar. The draw has however not been done yet.

NZC chief executive David White is adamant there won't be a second underarm.

"The arrangement of the potential profit split has been done but there has been no agreement on the split of games yet," The Dominion Post quoted White, as saying.

According to the new deal, New Zealand can get as little as 14 games to host, and could even miss out on a semi-final match, but White insists no decision on this has been made yet.

"No decisions have been made on where the games will be played. I think everyone will be very sensible where the games will be played," White said.

"This is a really good result for NZC and both Australia and New Zealand are conscious of having a meaningful competition in both countries," he added.

"From a New Zealand point of view, sharing in the far bigger Australian pie is a good result for us so we are very pleased about that. We have done the financial modelling and it is significantly better for NZC," he said. (ANI)