Rugby League: Maori league hunts sponsor to take team to 2000 World Cup

By Peter Jessup

A Maori rugby league team will take part in the World Cup in 2000, Maori administrators decided at the weekend, with the focus now on about $700,000 needed to front up in England.

The project has the tacit approval of the New Zealand Rugby League board, which regards itself as in the position of having to stick to promises made by an earlier committee.

A Maori delegation will attend the Rugby League International Federation meeting in Sydney next week to fight Australian opposition to the team's inclusion in the World Cup and to push claims for a place after 2000.

Across the Tasman there is concern that Maori participation will fuel Aboriginal claims for a team and that other ethnic groups, including the Lebanese and Greek communities in Sydney, would seek entry to the tournament.

Maori Rugby League chairman Hyrum Parata, re-elected in the weekend meeting at a Porirua marae, hopes next week to secure finalised dates and venues for the Maori matches so he can take that to potential sponsors.

The team, to be coached by former Manukau, Auckland and Carlisle coach Cameron Bell, would probably include mainly Australian and British-based players, Parata said.

The NZRL, as national governing body, has control of television rights and although some funds would come from that area, the team needed a major backer.

"That will be easier to secure if we can secure a future beyond 2000," Parata said.

NZRL chairman Gerald Ryan, who attended the marae meeting, said the league would support the Maori cause.

"A promise was given to them and as far as I'm concerned a promise is a promise," he said.

But there was opposition to the inclusion of a Maori team both within the NZRL, in the wider league and certainly from Australia, he agreed.

The England Rugby League, meanwhile, has demanded that Ryan retract his threat that the Kiwis would not play in the Tri-Series scheduled for October unless they receive better financial guarantees.

Ryan is holding firm and yesterday said there would be no apology, no change and no Kiwis playing unless a better business plan was put forward.

He also faces a battle over transfer fees, with the Australian Rugby League having now endorsed NZRL demands for payment for Junior Kiwis and others, but the National Rugby League yet to comply.

The two bodies appear to be as far apart as ever, despite an Australian Supreme Court ruling that required another election for a new ARL board. Ryan's concern is to know exactly who he is dealing with at the international level.