MUMBAI: New Zealand Cricket (NZC) and Pitch International have signed a long-term sponsorship and media rights agreement which will underpin the financial security of cricket in New Zealand.

In the agreement, Pitch International has secured all New Zealand Cricket?s media rights for international matches played by the Blackcaps in New Zealand for the 2012/13 to 2019/20 seasons. The agreement grants Pitch the world-wide rights to distribute the matches across various platforms including television, radio, mobile and Internet while NZC retains the rights to matches broadcast in New Zealand and to its domestic competitions.

Pitch International specialises in the representation of media rights, selling content globally across all media. They work with sporting federations, clubs and global stars including the English Rugby Union, The Football Association, Six Nations and Uefa.

In the Future Tours Programme, India and Australia visit twice and England visits three times in the next eight years.

NZC CEO David White said, ?New Zealand Cricket is delighted to secure the length and value of this extremely important relationship with Pitch. We are thrilled that Pitch will be helping put the Blackcaps in front of so many fans around the world.

"This agreement puts NZC in a position to safeguard the future of our game by allowing us to concentrate on driving participation and support of cricket. Media rights provide revenue that enables us to fund grassroots and community cricket investments, domestic cricket competitions and retain our best professional players in New Zealand?.

Pitch International founding partner Jon Owen said ?We look forward to representing the Blackcaps brand around the world and building long term value for New Zealand Cricket and its commercial partners.

MUMBAI: Television viewers in Australia will not be able to watch the IPL which kicks off today in Chennai due to a stalemate involving Australian television networks and Indian cricket administrators.

A report in ?The Age? states that ?Network Ten? held the rights for the first four seasons of the IPL but declined to air last year?s event, mainly because of the poor ratings and also because it coincided with a diversification of its One HD channel away from consisting solely of sport.

The newspaper also reported that it is believed the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has sought a hefty price whenever a new IPL TV rights contract has been discussed with Australian networks.

Australians can watch the action online at ipl.indiatimes.com and youtube.com/indiatimes.

The successor to Ten for the now-lapsed IPL rights, Fox Sports, is about to begin its broadcast of the West Indies Tests, while on weekends it has significant AFL, rugby league, rugby union and soccer commitments.