Cricket: Players may seek compo

The Government could face compensation claims from the Players' Association as well as New Zealand Cricket [NZC] in the wake of cancelling visas to the Zimbabwean cricketers in December.

NZC has virtually given up hope of attracting a replacement side to tour this summer in place of Zimbabwe which will leave the national body, and the players, badly out of pocket.

Most of the test-playing nations have little room to move in their programmes during December, leaving little leeway for NZC to stitch together a tour.

"It's a busy programme. We can't just click our fingers," chief executive Martin Snedden said when asked about the likelihood of a replacement tour.

"We stitched together a FICA team when Sri Lanka had to go home but we had to go to many different nationalities. It's a significant difficulty."

The Herald on Sunday understands Bangladesh was briefly considered but discounted.

With budgeted revenues of approximately $3 million from an internal tour, NZC will likely seek compensation from the Government, who indicated last week they would be amenable to covering costs in the wake of denying the Zimbabwean cricketers entry visas.

The Players' Association is concerned about the potential $24,500 each player stands to lose from the loss of two tests and five one-dayers. Multiply that cost by 12 players and it is close to a further $300,000.

Players' Association manager Heath Mills said "we haven't discussed match payments but clearly players will suffer a loss if there isn't a replacement tour. We'll wait and see what happens in the coming months".

Mills said it was important to consider the plight of the Zimbabwean players who "are possibly the biggest losers in all of this. They will miss up to six weeks' wages and they have no way of making that back".

Meanwhile, NZC and the United Cricket Board of South Africa have finally settled on dates for New Zealand's tour to the Republic.

The UCB had accused NZC of stalling on dates as they tried to work around the Super Series in Australia in October.

However it appears NZC has its preferred option of splitting the tour into a one-day and test phases.

"We have ... finally reached agreement with New Zealand after many months of negotiation," South African cricket chief Gerald Majola said on the national body's website. "There were clashes with the ICC Super Series matches when several of our top players will be on duty against Australia. We wanted to avoid playing New Zealand without them."

Five one-dayers and a Twenty20 match will be played in October-November 2005 and three tests will be played between April 7 and May 9.

Snedden had earlier said increased travel costs were the only negative of a split tour.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY