Plans being developed for NZ20 league in January 2027

New Zealand is finally set to enter the world of privately owned T20 leagues, with plans afoot to start NZ20, a tournament comprising six privately owned franchises in January 2027. The league's operating model would be similar to that of the Caribbean Premier League (CPL) with the tournament receiving the license from New Zealand Cricket (NZC), but managed independently.

Plans don't currently have NZC approval, but if they do secure that, NZ20 will replace the Super Smash, the current six-team competition. That tournament is now two decades old and is played by the local cricket associations in New Zealand: Auckland, Northern Districts, Wellington, Central Districts, Canterbury and Otago. It is managed by NZC, whereas NZ20 will have teams with private owners.

According to Don MacKinnon, who heads the NZ20 Establishment Committee, the concept for the league originated from former New Zeeland greats including Stephen Fleming who then engaged with the New Zealand Players Association (NZPA} to gauge whether the time had come for a franchise-based league. MacKinnon, a professional lawyer who heads the country's Sports Integrity Commission, and has served as a director on the NZC Board, was approached about three months ago to see if the concept was feasible.

In a conversation with ESPNcricinfo, MacKinnon said NZ20 was an "extremely viable" project and it was the "ideal" time to launch.

"The concept is a pretty simple one really. It's to see if New Zealand cricket could provide us with a clean window, which in our mind is absolutely essential for a very short privately owned competition, ideally in the peak of summer in New Zealand," MacKinnon said. "So ideally for a men's competition in the month of January at potentially a lot of our holiday venues, some of our beautiful grassbanks ground and a short fan-centric, fun type competition, but one played by the very best players in New Zealand and hopefully some internationals."

The absence of a New Zealand T20 league until now has been notable, especially as its players and coaches have been popular in leagues across the globe. But MacKinnon said collective belief among former players was that the time was ripe for New Zealand to create its own domestic brand.

Back in 2014 the NZC Board had turned down the idea of such a league because it did not believe it could create a successful product and would "struggle" to compete with the likes of the IPL and BBL. MacKinnon agreed with that decision but pointed out the time now was right to "develop our own unique competition." He said that NZ20 would not be aping the IPL or BBL.

"We are looking at something very boutique, very New Zealand centric, a unique experience for players who come here, as I said, small grounds, a great lifestyle, something that we think players would love to be involved in."

MacKinnon said the Super Smash was "not really working with the fans" and has become more of a "development" competition for players. NZ20, MacKinnon believes, has the potential to "reenergise domestic cricket" in New Zealand. "What's different about it? Well, it's partly driven out of private investment and so you get the ability to be very innovative. You have the ability to have greater capital, to invest in better fan experience both at the ground but also whether you are watching on television or online. We also think that if we get this right, we will attract the very best New Zealand players back into our domestic competitions."

MacKinnon did not disclose whether IPL franchise owners were looking to invest, but said there was strong interest both from India as well as other investors globally. "We've also looked really closely at some of the models around the world and particularly the CPL where the league owners and the team seem to have done a great job in moving that competition not only into a point of profitability but also has really engaged fan interest. So that's one of the models we're looking at very closely. But by no means the only one."

The current plan involves starting the men's tournament in January 2027 followed by the launch of the women's league in December 2027. The biggest challenge remains finding a clear window with the BBL, SA20 and ILT20 running simultaneously in January. Those tournaments generally involve the participation of several New Zealand international.

MacKinnon acknowledged that hurdle, but believed current New Zealand players were keen to participate. "We appreciate we won't be able to attract everybody that we'd like to have, but the feedback from current New Zealand players is they would desperately love for this tournament to go ahead and would do everything to participate in it.

"So that's the first goal. We are designing this competition very much along the lines that we want the Lockie Fergusons and the Finn Allens of this world and the Kane Williamsons playing in it. So that's the most important goal because at the moment a lot of those players aren't playing in our Super Smash."

MacKinnon is confident NZ20 can attract "marquee players" if they get the right owners. MacKinnon also highlighted one of its USPs would be to allow players to own a stake in the league. "We also are looking at a model where the players may well have an ownership share of the league," he said. "And we are doing that because we want an extremely high level of access to player intellectual property. We want to be able to open our players up to the wealth. And to do that, that intellectual property needs to be very readily available."