Cricket: Sponsor drive may see split

New Zealand Cricket will consider splitting its domestic cricket package in an attempt to sell the sport to sponsors.

As revealed in the Herald on Sunday, State withdrew its sponsorship for domestic cricket last month after eight years, forcing NZC to seek an alternative.

Commercial manager Peter Dwan said they were speaking to a number of companies but had yet to get any across the line.

"There's a range of interest," Dwan said.

That range could be increased by selling off the three components separately, or at the very least splitting short-form cricket - one-day and Twenty20 games - from the four-day championship.

"That's certainly an option," Dwan said. "In a way it is unusual to have one sponsor across all the competitions and that is something we are looking seriously at. The people that might be attracted to Twenty20 cricket aren't necessarily going to be interested in four-day cricket and vice versa."

In many ways, the 50-over game is the ugly duckling. Twenty20 is riding the crest of the wave and commands the biggest crowds and significant television time, but balanced against that is the blanket coverage the four-day championship gets, particularly on radio, over a long period, extending from spring through to autumn.

The 50-over championship has lost ground to Twenty20 and receives little television coverage so for that reason, it might make sense to try to bundle it with its more popular cousin to sell it to sponsors.

"We're looking at all the options," Dwan reiterated.

Despite the increased stakes in domestic Twenty20, namely a place in the lucrative Champions League, domestic cricket is a chain around the neck of NZC bank accounts, but nevertheless a chain that must be worn.

For the 2007-08 financial year, NZC was running a profit of $2.9 million until grants and distributions to the major associations were taken into account, leaving them with a $7.6 million deficit.

NZC will be hoping the increased profile of cricket will be attractive to sponsors. In its last annual report, it noted that Sky TV was reporting a 23 per cent increase in viewership on the previous year.

However, most of that would have been for the international game, as the popularity of Twenty20 cricket took off.