Cricket: ICL 'rabies' means two provinces forgo Indian cricket wisdom

Four New Zealand provinces have the benefit of Indian cricket wisdom in the national championship this month, but Auckland and Northern Districts will miss out.

Those two provinces have players with links to the privately run Indian Cricket League, an organisation the Indian board view as possessing cricket's equivalent of rabies. They won't allow their players any contact with those who have ICL ties, including Auckland's fast bowler Daryl Tuffey and ND's former test batsman Hamish Marshall.

The luck of the State Championship draw means when the fifth round of games start on Friday, ND host Auckland at Whangarei, so neither team is advantaged over the other.

Batting great Rahul Dravid will play for Canterbury against Central Districts at Rangiora this week, while legspinner Amit Mishra will be in the CD lineup.

VVS Laxman, another of India's best batsmen, will play for Otago against Wellington in Dunedin. Wellington's lineup will include fast-medium Lakshmipathy Balaji.

The other two Indians requiring a test series warmup game under an agreement between New Zealand Cricket and the Indian board, opener Murali Vijay and fast-medium Dhawal Kulkarni, will appear in the sixth-round game between CD and Wellington in Napier from March 13-16.

Canterbury have two ICL-contracted players, Chris Harris and Shane Bond, but they are not playing the four-day championship. Their two South African-born players, Kruger van Wyk and Johan Myburgh, have been given a dispensation by NZC to play as both are throwing their lot in with New Zealand. That gets around the rule permitting each province only one overseas player per game.

CD and Otago don't have an overseas player, while Wellington's Graham Napier is understood to be heading home, thus opening a vacancy.

Auckland Cricket chief executive Andrew Eade said no pressure had been put on the association to leave Tuffey out in favour of an Indian player.

"We are very comfortable with the concept," he said last night.

"It's just the nature of their stance on ICL players - and we respect their right to have a stance like that - means we can't accommodate them.

"I'm sure they'll understand where we're coming from in respect of our decision to play Daryl."