Cricket: State to draw stumps on cricket

State are set to pull their support of New Zealand domestic cricket.

It will come as a big blow to the domestic game, as currently State sponsors all three competitions - the State Championship, State Shield, State Twenty20 and State League (women's) - and the six major associations.

They picked up the sponsorship portfolio in 2001-02 after petrol company Shell ended their long association with the game.

State sponsorship consultant Emily Travers, a former White Fern, left her job on Friday. Despite inquiries, nobody from State returned calls to the Herald on Sunday.

NZC chief executive Justin Vaughan was also unavailable for comment yesterday but a person familiar with the situation said he was "unsure whether the final nail had been placed in the coffin yet" but, if it wasn't, it was hovering over the lid.

State perhaps signalled their intentions last year when they signed only a one-year extension to their existing contract.

An expert in sports marketing, Otago University School of Business senior lecturer Dr John Guthrie, said it would not be easy selling domestic cricket to potential sponsors in the current economic climate.

"Any form of sports sponsorship is a hard sell at the moment," he said. "It really is about companies going back to basics and finding effective vehicles to promote themselves. The days of the old philanthropic attitude are well and truly gone."

Dr Guthrie said measuring the effectiveness of State's sponsorship of domestic cricket was difficult because it was hard to gauge brand awareness.

"We are not talking about cash in the till here."

However, he said if New Zealand Cricket "got off their bums" and worked hard to understand what it could offer sponsors, then domestic cricket, the ugly stepsister of the sport, would be an easier sell.

"But it's still going to be hard."

The news comes in the same week when independent research confirmed record-breaking interest in cricket last season.

The highest number of players registered to play cricket in a single season was recorded during the summer and New Zealanders watching international cricket both at the grounds and on television exceeded targets.

This was in large part because of the array of stars that arrived on our shores - think Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and MS Dhoni to name just three - courtesy of India.

The number of people registered to play cricket in New Zealand exceeded 104,000 during the summer, only the second time in the sport's recorded history that the 100,000 participation mark has been achieved.

End-of-season figures released by New Zealand Cricket yesterday showed attendances at international matches during the 2008-09 season reached 209,228 - 16 per cent ahead of the season target of 180,000.

In addition, cricket received more than 25.2 million viewer hours on Sky - 26 per cent ahead of the NZC season target of 20 million.

NZC commercial manager Peter Dwan said the results were a reflection of both an effective grassroots development programme and an exciting summer of cricket.

With Australia visiting for three tests next February, that interest is expected to peak again.

"There is nothing like that trans-tasman rivalry to fan the flames of public interest in cricket," said Dwan.