Cricket: Hold-outs agree to sign NZ contracts

NZC chief executive Justin Vaughan lauded players for taking a decision which will hurt their wallet. Photo / Getty Images

New Zealand's six Indian Premier League-contracted players last night belatedly signed their contracts for next season - but world cricket has an elephant standing in the corner of the room.

The six, captain Dan Vettori, vice-captain Brendon McCullum, Jacob Oram, Ross Taylor, Jesse Ryder and Kyle Mills, had sought an extension before signing their New Zealand Cricket contracts while they chased information on the likely dates of the IPL next season.

The outcome is that they have joined the other 14 nationally contracted players and will be available for all international cricket - including incoming tours by Pakistan, Bangladesh and Australia - but at a significant personal financial cost.

And that had NZC chief executive Justin Vaughan and Players' Association boss Heath Mills last night lauding the players for taking a decision which will hurt their wallet, and urging the rapid introduction of an IPL window into the annual international calendar.

The players are likely to miss at least half the IPL Twenty20 14-game round robin programme, which will start around March 12, in the middle of the Australian tour, and run until about April 25.

IPL contracts are paid on a pro-rata basis with contracts ranging from McCullum's US$700,000 ($1.07 million) - a year to Mills' US$150,000.

Top earner McCullum potentially stands to miss out on about US$350,000 in straight match fees.

Looming large over the game is the knowledge that unless a cleanly structured calendar is established, including a dedicated IPL slot free from international commitments, the lure of big dollars will eventually sway players away from putting their country first.

"While people will be pleased they have signed up this year, and that is great, the fact of the matter is unless world cricket sorts out the scheduling issue we're going to run into this problem every year," Mills said.

New Zealand have been directly affected in two of the three IPL seasons - including next March-April - with several players allowed to make a late start to last year's tour of England to fit in some Twenty20 games in India.

Mills warned that players will be put in difficult positions: either take the big money or play for their country, with its associated lesser earning level, if the game's important operators, primarily the leading nations, don't take steps to tidy up the calendar smartly.

"It's important to celebrate that these guys have made this decision. But in the future who's to say what decisions players will make and what they will prioritise," he added.

Vaughan pointed out the next IPL might be "a bit of an aberration" in that it is starting a few weeks earlier than the last two to allow an uninterrupted Twenty20 world championship to start in the Caribbean around April 28.

That tournament carries the strong whiff of the International Cricket Council trying to cash in while the going is good, considering the last one finished only a few weeks ago in England.

"It is something that will recur, and not only for New Zealand," Vaughan said of the IPL-international cricket conundrum.

"We don't expect the IPL to run in March in future years. If it did, it would potentially be disastrous."

Vaughan described the players' decision as "phenomenal".

"For any of us, having to make that decision to cast aside hundreds of thousands of dollars is not easy, no matter how much you love playing for your country."

The schedules for the three international tours are due in about 10 days. It is expected to show Pakistan playing three tests in November-December; Bangladesh here in February and Australia from late February until the start of April.