The Black Caps might be on a winning streak at the world cup. But things aren't quite the same for the Canterbury Cricket Trust, which is struggling to re-pay a $1.5 million loan to the Christchurch City Council for the lighting towers at Hagley Oval.

Originally, the council was charging a 2 percent interest rate. But that’s gone up to 5.4 percent. Which means the cricket people are really struggling just to pay the interest - let alone the rest of the loan. And the Council is being really tight about it.

You’ll remember this - the big stoush over the lighting towers at Hagley Oval. Which, by the way, would have to be the best - if not one of the best - sporting facilities in the country.

So there was the big stoush in the first place over the Oval development. But then things went next-level when the cricket people started talking about putting in the big lighting towers. Six of them. Just under 50-metres high.

It was all pretty much connected with getting the Women’s Cricket World Cup here.

We’d already had games here for the men’s world cup. But to get the women’s world cup here - particularly the final - we needed lighting that was up to international broadcast standard.

In the time between the men's world cup in 2015 and the women's world cup, technology had improved and so the TV companies had different quality expectations and demands.

So all the people who thought the world was going to end back when the Hagley Oval development at Hagley Park was first brought-up, they got all fired-up again because those lighting towers were going to be absolute armageddon.

They were going to be like flames from the mouth of some giant dragon casting a giant shadow over Hagley Park. Spitting fire and scorching our beautiful pristine park, which dates back to 1855.

That wasn’t quite how the crowd opposed to the idea described them. But you get the gist.

Never mind the fact that Hagley Park is 164 hectares - bigger than Hyde Park in London, which is 140 hectares. Despite all that space, the anti-cricket oval people were all antsy that the lighting towers would be the end of Hagley Park, as we know it.

Thankfully, the pro-cricket people had the post-earthquake regeneration legislation on their side which meant that, if it could be shown that the lighting would be good for Christchurch’s recovery, then they’d get the go-ahead.

And that’s exactly what happened. Which meant that, by the time the women's world cup was happening in March and April last year, Christchurch had the set-up to be able to host the night-time final between Australia and England. Which Australia won, by the way.

So the outfit that led the charge on the lights was the Canterbury Cricket Trust, which needed a loan from the council to pay kits share of the cost for the lighting towers.

But because of the increased interest being charged by the Council, it asked for an extra five years to pay the loan off and that the loan be made interest-free loan from here on.

The council agreed to extend the loan but refused to make the loan interest-free. Which is nuts when you consider how the city has already benefited and stands to benefit because of the Cricket Trust’s fortitude to make the lights happen.

Anywhere else, the local council would pay for facilities that benefit the wider community. Especially when you can show there is an economic benefit.

And $5 million is what they reckon the women's world cup was worth to the city. And it wouldn't have happened without the lights.

But that means nothing to our council. Which is treating the loan to the Canterbury Cricket Trust the same way it treats other loans it’s got going. A recent example would be the loan given to finish a new bar in that heritage building on Manchester Street.

There is interest being charged on that loan. But there is a commercial operation happening there. So there’s revenue - money coming in the door.

Unlike the Canterbury Cricket Trust, which is saying today that the interest payments are “crippling”. And we’re being warned that the way things are going, the cricket clubs around Canterbury might have to stump up.

Which is absolutely crazy, when Sydenham Rugby Club - for example - isn’t paying for the lights at our new stadium, Te Kaha. So why should cricket have to pay?