New Zealand Cricket (NZC) has reportedly pocketed a whopping 35 million dollars with broadcast rights from this year's Indian tour, which is the biggest payday among the country's sports.
The amount surpasses the 25 million-dollar profit reaped by the New Zealand Rugby Union for all revenues including broadcasting, attendance and sponsorship from the 2005 British and Irish Lions tour and makes the NZC deal the biggest broadcast windfall ever achieved by a national sport organisation.
According to Stuff.co.nz, NZC chief executive David White rejected any suggestion that the lucrative Indian tours will soon dry up and instead hinted that a scheduled visit by India again in 2019 would be confirmed within a matter of weeks along with tours by 'all the big countries'.
White confirmed that broadcast rights for the present Indian tour were worth more than the then record 25 million dollars that NZC banked from India's last visit in 2009 and the report mentioned that the deal is part of an eight-year international broadcast contract between NZC and global sports marketing agency Pitch International.
Struck in 2012, the report also said that the deal set to cover two Indian tours - the current 2014 visit and a return in 2019 which was scheduled under the ICC's Future Tours Programme (FTP), although India has previously refused to sign up to the FTP, meaning the tour in four years time was no certainty.
White revealed broadcast rights from the current Indian tour and the scheduled 2019 visit represented 60 percent of NZ Cricket's promised global broadcast revenue from Pitch International for the period of 2012 until 2020.
The 2014 tour profits are also much higher than 2009 despite the fact it was cut short by the Indians, with one Test and one Twenty20 game axed from the original itinerary, the report added.