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The huge cost of live coverage of World Cup cricket in Britain in May has reduced the field of contenders for the New Zealand rights to one - Sky Television.

TV3 sports head Gavin Wood said yesterday that his network was out of the running, and TVNZ executive editor of sport Denis Harvey said that without significant changes it was unlikely TVNZ would be taking live coverage.

``The English cricket board wanted $NZ4.6 million for the rights,'' Wood said. ``Given the time it's coming in - late at night and early morning - the event is not particularly suitable for recovering finances. There are no broadcasters in New Zealand who could recover anything other than a small part of that cost,'' he said.

Sky Television, however, remains hopeful of obtaining coverage.

``We are in the final stages of negotiations,'' said Sky publicity officer Melissa Brady. ``It is quite hopeful,'' she said.

New Zealand Cricket chief executive Chris Doig said he was happier than he had been earlier about the prospects of live coverage of the Black Caps' games. He confirmed that World Cup organisers had received an offer from one of the New Zealand television companies and it was ``not far away from doing a deal''.

Doig had previously said that it was of ``desperate concern'' that no New Zealand networks had confirmed a deal for coverage of New Zealand games.

``The difficulty is that the event happens overnight when there are not significant audiences,'' Harvey said.

``There are also significant costs getting the cover down from the UK. It doesn't make a lot of sense if you are a commercial operator,'' he said.