KEY POINTS:
Auckland and Wellington cricketers were furious last week when roused from their beds in the early hours of the morning to catch a red-eye plane to Christchurch for a three-day match.
The players have complained that by catching the first available flight to the South Island and travelling to Lincoln for a normal start time, players risked significant injury.
Black Caps bowlers James Franklin and Kyle Mills were involved in the match. Both are recovering from injury and hope to be available for the upcoming series against Bangladesh.
Newly ensconced Wellington Cricket chief executive Gavin Larsen said it was a decision taken by both teams' management to travel in the morning. While he had every faith in his management to make decisions in the best interest of the Firebirds, "clearly there was tension, over this decision, from the players".
Larsen, who started his role this week after eight years with National Bank, said the Players' Association had become involved and it would become an "agenda item" for the future.
"Clearly there are budget restrictions at play here but looking from the outside you'd have to say they could have taken a later flight, given themselves extra time to warm up and started the game later. They could have made up an extra hour the next day," he said.
The Herald on Sunday understands that for $300 from each association the players could have spent an extra night at Lincoln, where they stay at the New Zealand Cricket academy hostel.
Larsen pointed out that had this been a State Championship match, rather than a warm-up game, such travel arrangements would never have been deemed acceptable.
Players' Association manager Heath Mills confirmed that he had received complaints from a delegation of players involved in the match.
"We are disappointed with the travel aspect. We've made it very clear to the major associations involved and New Zealand Cricket that we will not accept our players being subjected to same-day travel again. It's not acceptable in a professional, high-performance environment."
