Cricket tours add to loss

Press, 6 September 1989, Page 72

Cricket tours add to loss

Forgettable cricket tours of New Zealand by England and Pakistan in the last two summers contributed largely to a thumping loss of $483,747 for the New Zealand Cricket Council over the 1988-89 season. But the council executive director, Graham Dowling, was bearing up bravely last evening as he contemplated the gloomy figures. “We are over that hurdle now, and prospects for the new season look brighter with the Indian tour and the triangular series, which will also involve Australia. “We have achieved increased sponsorship to cover some areas and, taking all avenues into account, we expect to break even, at worst”

Mr Dowling said the council

was vulnerable, because it relied on internal tours for any profits. Two poor home test series in the last two summers had affected the council’s profitability profoundly. “We knew we were in for a difficult year, but we are naturally disappointed by this extraordinary loss,” he said. “It is a loss that has been wrongly publicised. Some people in the media have been looking for hidden elements, such as faulty management, or poor investments.

“But we are totally open to scrutiny — we’re lilywhite.” The loss on the Pakistan tour was $157,000, and the New Zealand Emerging Players’ tour of Zimbabwe was, $83,000 in the red.

Other items, including carry-over costs from the England tour of 1987-88, brought the net loss on all tours to $310,039. “In the investment situation we were down $52,706, but despite this we are still showing a net over-all investment gain of $640,806 over the last five years,” Mr Dowling said. “We stuck to our policy of building up reserves for a rainy day.”

But the executive director was confident that the sun will shine again on New Zealand cricket in 1989-90. Although six of India’s most experienced international players were banned for a year last month for taking part in an unauthorised tour, Mr Dowling’s personal view is that all six will come to New Zealand.