As New Zealand Cricket ponders the future of the domestic Twenty20 game, Black Caps test captain Tom Latham has nailed his colours to the mast as to which option he prefers – the NZ20.
The future of the current model – the Super Smash – is in doubt, given there is no broadcast deal in place for next season and beyond.
New Zealand Cricket (NZC) has engaged the services of consultancy firm Deloitte to review the best options to take the sport forward.
Known as Project Bigger Smash, it’s understood four options are on the table. The most topical of those, at present, is the NZ20.
While only a concept at this stage, the NZ20 is supported by all six of New Zealand’s Major Associations – Auckland, Northern Districts, Wellington, Central Districts, Canterbury and Otago – as well as the New Zealand Cricket Players Association.
Former Black Caps captains Stephen Fleming, Daniel Vettori and Brendon McCullum are also understood to have championed the idea, while renowned lawyer Don Mackinnon heads the NZ20 establishment committee – which also contains two members of NZC’s board.
Similar to franchise models set up around the world, notably in South Africa and the Caribbean, the NZ20 would see private investment into teams, with that money used in particular to attract overseas players to turn out for Kiwi teams.
The NZ20 would theoretically operate in a January window. And although that would see it compete with Australia’s Big Bash League (BBL) and South Africa’s SA20, Latham said that the competition is what cricket in New Zealand needs.
“When you look at the NZ20 possibility, I think it’s a great initiative,” he said. “What it will bring to the country, to cricket in the country, will be hugely beneficial, having international players to boost the standard of cricket.
“We have a great standard of cricket, Super Smash has produced great cricketers for us up to this point.
“But being able to push the game forward here in New Zealand, I think it will only do great things for cricket.
“I’d love to see it happen.”
As Latham himself points out, New Zealand is currently the only major cricketing nation that does not operate with some form of a franchise system.
Since the introduction of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2008, the franchise game has overtaken international cricket – bringing the code into line with close to every other professional sport, where the club game takes priority.
In the 17 years since the IPL’s introduction, leagues have sprouted all over the world, from India to England, Australia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Caribbean and so on. Even the USA, Canada and Nepal operate with franchise models.
But while New Zealand doesn’t have a system like that of its own, the Black Caps have become commodities for overseas clubs to sign, for lucrative sums of money.
It’s not just about money, though. For a player like Bevon Jacobs – who was signed to IPL side the Mumbai Indians before he’d even made his international debut – the chance to learn from some of the best players in the world outweighed any paycheque he received for doing so.
And while Latham hasn’t taken part in the franchise game itself, excluding stints with English sides Durham, Kent and Warwickshire in the T20 Blast, he thinks the chance to let New Zealand’s domestic players learn from some of the best cannot be missed.
“If you talk to a lot of the players, they’ll be in the same camp,” Latham said. “A lot of the guys have played franchise cricket around the world these days.
“Being able to mix with overseas players, that have had great international careers that don’t play international cricket now but still play franchise cricket, to learn off those guys would be hugely beneficial.
“Not only to the guys who play for New Zealand, but also to the younger generation coming through.”
However, the NZ20 is just one option on the table for NZC and Deloitte to investigate. Elsewhere, it has been mooted that New Zealand acquire licences for teams in Australia’s BBL and join the two countries, similar to rugby league’s NRL and football’s A-League.
That, though, would leave NZC at the beck and call of Cricket Australia and the BBL, at a time when private investment into that competition has also been mooted.
But while transtasman unification has succeeded elsewhere, Latham makes no bones of the fact he believes the NZ20 is the route the game in Aotearoa should take.
“I would much rather see us have our own competition here, where we’re using all of our talent as best we can to boost cricket in New Zealand,” he said.
“I think [the NZ20] is a really good opportunity to do that.”
The findings of Deloitte’s review are expected in early 2026, before NZC makes a decision over which option it will take.
Alex Powell is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.