Changes in the shape and funding of New Zealand sport could have consequences for New Zealand cricket.

While nothing has yet been finalised in the strategy department of the new organisation that is growing out of the Government-commissioned Graham study of New Zealand's sporting structure, it is clear that the pressure is going to go on some of the higher profile sports who have been well-funded in the past.

As a sport which derives an income from the sale of television rights, cricket has been on notice that it cannot expect to continue to receive the high level of funding it has enjoyed in the past.

Most notably, this has been the highly successful implementation of the New Zealand Cricket Academy which was funded, in part, by way of grant from the New Zealand Sports Foundation.

The recent shift away from the Academy system and the introduction of High Performance Centres in Dunedin, Wellington and Auckland was a clear indication of a change of thinking in the development strategy.

But because of its team nature, cricket cannot really fit within the HPC structure and the Academy it has developed at Lincoln University is a model that is clearly working comfortably in the cricket scheme of things.

The way will still be clear for cricketers to be regarded as sportspeople worth investing in for the good of New Zealand sport from individual grants, and if the community support scheme is maintained along the same lines as existed between the Hillary Commission and local authorities, individual cricket clubs may also be able to get some funding for specific projects.

But, as has happened with the New Zealand Rugby Football Union which has received no money from the public purse for two years, the signs are there for New Zealand Cricket.

Hindering any longer term view of where funding may be going is the new role to be required of the New Zealand Sports Foundation.

What started out as an independent body funded by equal shares from the private sector and public funding, the NZSF has increasingly had its role changed to the point where most recently it has been the distribution arm of elite sports funding in this country.

It mounted a high-profile effort to ensure New Zealand had good success at the Olympic Games in Sydney, but for a variety of reasons, the results were not forthcoming.

Now, as the result of the Graham group's findings, it is shaping that the NZSF will be pulled right back into the overall structure administered until now by the Hillary Commission.

Just what shape this new authority will take is unclear and won't be obvious until the new board meets and shapes its own destiny.

It is scheduled to take over from the Hillary Commission on July 1 and it is expected to be some time after that before its mission is clearly outlined.

In the meantime, cricket could be preparing itself for a squeeze as it attempts some impressive new initiatives increasingly reliant on self-generated funding.

The introduction of the 10-year Test championship may well be a key role in New Zealand's thinking and planning for the future.

It will at least ensure a continual programme of visiting teams, most with their own revenue generating television interest in their own countries and, in the case of high profile teams, on the sub-continent.

The success of the ICC knockout tournaments for development purposes also ensures that income from the four-yearly World Cups will be backed by ICC revenues.

But, unless some highly-effective lobbying is directed at the new sports administrative body, it does seem that cricket is going to be one sport increasingly required to find its own way in the future.

© CricInfo