However, as establishment committee chair Don Mackinnon told the Herald, NZ20 is not attempting anything that hasn’t already been done successfully around the world.
Here’s everything you need to know about NZC’s proposed new league:
What is NZ20?
First and foremost, it’s important to note that while it has been provisionally accepted by NZC, NZ20 is just a concept – for now.
As seen all around the world, NZ20 would bring a franchise model into the sport here away from what we’ve seen over the last 21 years in the Super Smash, where the six teams are controlled by the six Major Associations – Auckland, Northern Districts, Wellington, Central Districts, Christchurch and Otago.
If a licence to operate is granted by NZC, NZ20 would run similarly to the Super Smash.
However, just how involved NZC is in the governance of the league remains to be seen and is to be decided as and when a licence is granted.
It is understood that upwards of 20 parties have shown interest in investing in the league, based both overseas and from within New Zealand.
Crucially, the Herald also understands at least one Indian Premier League side have shown interest in purchasing a team.
How will it work?
When the all-clear comes, the league itself would be sold to a majority owner, with the rest of the stake to be split among the New Zealand Cricket Players Association (NZCPA), the six Major Associations, the team owners and likely now NZC as well.
Once the league is sold, team owners and investors will come on board, before finalising where franchises will be based and determining which players will play for which teams.
That private money coming into the game will be key. It will allow Kiwi players to be paid at a competitive rate and operate as full professionals, as opposed to the current seven-and-a-half month contracts our domestic players currently have.
What’s more, it’s hoped private money can attract genuine stars to NZ20, in the same way that we saw during the formative years of the Super Smash, all the way back in the late 2010s.
When will it be played?
If all goes to plan, NZ20 will be exclusively played in a dedicated four-week January window for men, and likely the same in December for women.
As seen all around the world, having these dedicated windows – free of international cricket – helps franchise leagues thrive and gives the best players certainty as to when they can join.
Those months in particular will see NZ20 operate during the peak of the Kiwi summer, at a time where fans can attend regularly while on holiday.
However, the flipside of being played in January is that NZ20 will clash with the Big Bash League across the ditch, SA20 in South Africa and the UAE-based ILT20.
How many teams will there be?
At the moment, it has been signposted that NZ20 would replicate the six-team format seen in the Super Smash.
However, rather than follow the same teams split across the Major Associations, NZ20 has the intent and the ability to operate differently.
With the tournament to be staged in summer, it has been indicated both privately and publicly that NZ20 would go after Kiwi hotspots.
For example, the Otago-based side might find itself in Queenstown, rather than Dunedin. Instead of a team in Napier or New Plymouth, there could be one in Tauranga as well as Hamilton.
These details are all still to be worked out, though.
Does NZC need a franchise league?
In short, yes.
NZC has made no bones of the fact that the Super Smash has always been geared more towards local player development than being a commercial vehicle.
Doing that, though, has always left the sport here as the outlier around the world.
New Zealand is currently the only major test-playing nation without a franchise competition, which has left our best and brightest little option but to chase opportunities around the world.
Think Finn Allen and Tim Seifert playing last summer for teams in Australia’s Big Bash League, rather than at home in the Super Smash.
As well as earning more money from doing so, playing in overseas franchise leagues more importantly gives Kiwi players the chance to rub shoulders with some of the best in the world and improve their game while doing so.
As indicated by the players on more than one occasion, having that kind of tournament on Kiwi shores might not bring our best back from overseas, but it will definitely keep more and more here for the summer.
Wouldn’t a Big Bash League team be better?
If you listen to fans, having a team join Australia does appear to be the more popular solution to what we do with T20 in New Zealand. In reality, though, that would be disastrous.
While we have seen Kiwi teams in Australian competitions work in other sports, namely football, league and basketball, cricket operates in a much different space.
Franchise cricket sees teams and players operate in much shorter windows, with players going from contract to contract, rather than year-round as is the case in other codes.
Going from having six professional teams for men and women in the current system to only having one would decimate pathways for up-and-coming players and effectively kill cricket at the lower levels in New Zealand.
At present, each Big Bash squad consists of 18 players. In contrast, a Super Smash squad can be made up of more than 20 players, across six teams. To see that many players’ opportunities for high-level cricket diminished with the stroke of a pen is not the way forward for the sport here.
You might be very familiar with the New Zealand Warriors, Auckland FC, the Wellington Phoenix and the New Zealand Breakers, but the average sports fan would be hard pressed to name New Zealand’s domestic rugby league, football and basketball champions.
For that reason alone, it’s important that New Zealand is able to stand on its own two feet and operate as a player in cricket’s global ecosystem.
Will the best players actually play in it?
This is one of the most important questions, and one worth asking.
With our Black Caps and White Ferns now sharing changing rooms with some of the world’s best players during their overseas stints, plenty of discussions have taken place between players about coming to New Zealand over the summer.
When the Herald spoke to senior Black Cap Daryl Mitchell, who threw his weight behind NZ20, English wicketkeeper batter Phil Salt was namedropped as a potential player to attract.
Mitchell and Salt have played together for English side Lancashire, and you can bet your money that conversations between the two have taken place.
Most significantly, New Zealand’s best players want to play in it. As first reported by the Herald last month, there are multi-year contracts on the table for some Black Caps to sign, at the expense of playing in what was the Super Smash.
Every player the Herald has spoken to, though, has emphatically said they want to play franchise cricket here, rather than in Australia, South Africa or the UAE.
The proof will ultimately be in the pudding, though.
Who is involved?
The NZ20 establishment committee is chaired by Kiwi sports lawyer Don Mackinnon. As well as having previously been a board member of NZC, Mackinnon is now chair of the Blues Super Rugby Pacific side and heads New Zealand’s Sport Integrity Commission Te Kahu Raunui.
Another prominent sports lawyer, David Howman, is also part of the NZ20 establishment committee and is also the chair of Wellington Cricket.
Outgoing NZCPA chief executive Heath Mills has also been a key backer of NZ20. Mills has been with the NZCPA since its inception and is the most significant voice on behalf of Kiwi players, men and women.
Former Black Caps captains Stephen Fleming, Daniel Vettori and Brendon McCullum are understood to be involved at various levels, as backers of the concept outside of their coaching roles for clubs and countries around the world.
What about the women’s game?
There is another key sticking point for NZC before NZ20 is granted a licence.
While franchise leagues are a dime a dozen for men’s players, the women’s game sees far fewer opportunities.
For the countless men’s tournaments, spanning as far as the USA, Nepal and Canada, the women’s side of the game has just four franchise leagues, with a fifth to launch in Bangladesh in April.
That, then, makes NZ20 vital for women. At present, the White Ferns’ representation in these tournaments is for the most part restricted to captain Amelia Kerr and former skipper Sophie Devine.
And while other players secure contracts here and there, having just two regulars in these tournaments does need to be fixed if the White Ferns are to keep pace with the likes of Australia, England and India.
Given the NZCPA is so on board with NZ20, there is no way the women’s side of the coin will go ignored and therefore leave half of Kiwi cricket in the lurch.
What now for test cricket?
If anything, NZ20 should actually help test cricket in this country.
For a start, if the men’s January window is where NZ20 fits, that gives NZC clarity in the summer schedule – and clears space either side of Christmas to schedule matches.
While old-school fans will cry out for full tours, with test cricket at the centre of everything NZC does, the sport now operates in a different world, driven by the financial might of T20.
And as much as fans want and need test cricket to be the pinnacle of the game, it hasn’t been that way for a long time.
Importantly, though, it will raise the baseline of domestic cricket and see that flow through into national teams.
For more than a decade, New Zealand’s domestic cricket scene was strong enough that players who stepped into the test side were good enough to perform straight away.
Think Devon Conway, Tom Blundell, Jimmy Neesham and others scoring centuries on debut. Think Ajaz Patel, Colin de Grandhomme and Tim Southee taking five-wicket hauls.
In recent times, despite Will O’Rourke and Zak Foulkes both taking nine-wicket hauls on test debut against a weakened South Africa and Zimbabwe respectively, players haven’t been up to speed from the word go.
Even Rachin Ravindra, arguably New Zealand’s best all-format batter, took two years from debut to truly establish himself as a regular.
Having NZ20 as our T20 product won’t just see quality players arrive from overseas, it will see our domestic players reap the benefits of sharing knowledge with them and play in high-pressure situations before stepping up to international cricket.
That can only be a good thing.
Alex Powell is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.