New Zealand Cricket Reverts To Four-Day Working Week, International Tours In Doubt

The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in major decisions in New Zealand regarding the cricket and administration workings. New Zealand Cricket chief executive David White provided an update on the cricketing activities and administrative workflow in the wake of the pandemic that has locked down all sporting calendars. New Zealand has a total of 868 active coronavirus cases with one death which took place five days ago in Wellington. Accroding to a report in stuff.co.nz, New Zealand cricket will work for just four days while international tours to Netherlands, Ireland, West Indies and even Bangladesh in August are in doubt.

The stuff.co.nz report stated that New Zealand Cricket's head office in Auckland, staff had agreed to exhaust their leave entitlements until July 31 to switch to a four-day week, while NZC is applying for the Government Wage Subsidy Scheme to help negotiate the next 12 weeks. The 20 Black Caps players and 17 White Ferns players will continue to receive their monthly retainers from the player payment pool which constitutes a portion of New Zealand Cricket's annual revenue.

New Zealand cricket has also guaranteed its top players their full wages until July 31 but has deferred an announcement of pay and staff cuts. School and club level cricket, which provides New Zealand Cricket upto NZD 8 million of annual gaming funding, is the major area of concern due to the coronavirus pandemic suspending the season. The Plunket Shield, New Zealand's premier first-class tournament, was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Uncertain On International Tours

However, there is a major question mark on the status of international tours. The Indian Premier League, which was supposed to be played on April 15 after being postponed from March 29 due to the coronavirus pandemic, might effectively be delayed even further or cancelled entirely in 2020. New Zealand are expected to tour the Netherlands, Ireland and West Indies in the June to July period but that might be postponed. The White Ferns, the New Zealand women's cricket team, has now postponed their tour to Sri Lanka due to the coronavirus pandemic.

NZC chief executive David White has said a clear picture will emerge once the entire FTP is potentially rejigged. (Image credit: Getty Images)

The International Cricket Council (ICC) will have a conference with all the member nations about how the international calendar will be rejigged in the wake of the coronavirus, with the main focus being on the ICC World Test Championships and the ICC World T20 that is scheduled to be held in October and November in Australia. White highlighted the challenges that New Zealand will have to face in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

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"It's no secret our big revenue streams come from international cricket, broadcast, sponsorship etc. If we're not playing international cricket prior to Christmas that's going to be a challenge. Our biggest challenge and our focus is the sustainability of cricket in New Zealand; the community game, schools, clubs… we need cricket to continue and we need it to thrive. It's all interconnected, professional and amateur," White said.

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