New Zealand Cricket has announced it will continue its relationship with broadcaster's Magic Talk Radio, in the wake of the racism incident involving John Banks on Wednesday.
Responding to a caller's remarks that Māori are "genetically predisposed to crime, alcohol and underperformance", Banks said: "Your children need to get used to their Stone Age culture because if their Stone Age culture doesn't change, these people will come through your bathroom window."
That prompted an immediate response from NZC, who said it was "disgusted and appalled" at the conversation, pleading to "review its relationship" with Magic Talk's owners MediaWorks, with whom it recently inked a three-year deal as official broadcasters for all Blackcaps games.
On Thursday, NZC revealed it had met with MediaWorks to discuss the incident and were satisfied with their shared condemnation regarding Banks' comments.
"MediaWorks agrees with NZC's dismay that comments made by both caller and host were wholly unacceptable, and wishes to apologise unreservedly for the offence they have caused," NZC says.
"MediaWorks supports NZC's zero-tolerance stance towards racism and the organisation's alignment with the New Zealand Human Rights Commission's 'Give Nothing To Racism' campaign."
Magic Talk will resume its role as the Blackcaps' broadcasters, NZC confirms.
"NZC has accepted and welcomed MediaWorks' response and looks forward to continuing to work with its radio broadcast partner over the remainder of the summer and beyond."
On Wednesday, Banks issued an apology on-air, saying he "didn't pick up" on the caller's "denigrating remarks" about Māori at the time.
"His comments were wrong and racist, and they have no place on this broadcast," Banks said.
"I also made some generic negative statements about Māori people and practices that could have been misconstrued as racist, and I apologise for that. It's not my intention, I'm not racist."
