Cricket: Astle first NZ player to join US 20/20 league

SYDNEY - Nathan Astle is the first New Zealand player recruited by the American Premier League, world cricket's latest Twenty20 tournament, it was reported today.

Astle is one of eight former internationals linked with the Premium World 11 for the unsanctioned six-team league scheduled to start in New York in October, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

News of Astle's recruitment follows New Zealand cricketing great Sir Richard Hadlee's confirmation he'd joined the APL as an executive consultant.

And if the APL, which is in its embryonic stages, went ahead it would likely attract more former New Zealand players, with even star allrounder Jacob Oram admitting there was some temptation.

"I could lie to you and say it's not about (money)," Oram told Cricinfo of the Twenty20 revolution.

"But with the doors that have been opened in the Indian Premier League (IPL), and I'm now reading an APL, it is a chance to set yourself up.

"I know that is something people do not necessarily want to hear, but I am getting to the point where it's time to think about how you are placed financially, and how you will look after your family in the years to come."

The injury-prone Oram also revealed in the interview he was considering standing down from test cricket to prolong his career as an allrounder in the shorter form of the game.

The APL is being promoted by entrepreneur Jay Mir, the president and chief executive of the American Sports and Entertainment Group.

It is scheduled to start on a 10,000-capacity converted baseball field in Staten Island, and Mir has mostly targeted players who are already frozen out of international cricket on account of their involvement in the Indian Cricket League, which faces an uncertain future. The ICL has struck financial problems and its players have spoken of not being paid in recent months.

The Herald reported the Premium World 11 would be coached by former England spinner John Emburey, and their confirmed signings were Astle, Australians Jason Gillespie and Damien Martyn, South Africans Lance Klusener and Nantie Hayward, England's Graeme Hick and Adam Hollioake and Sri Lankan Marvan Atapattu.

The Pakistan team would be coached by former test captain Moin Khan and include Inzamam-ul-Haq and Abdul Razzaq, while the four other teams would be the Americans, Indians, Bangladeshis and West Indians.

"It's not competing with anyone, it's about cricket having some recognition in America, which is great for our sport," said Gillespie, the former Australian pace bowler.

"For me, I'm effectively banned anyway from playing any first-class cricket so (the opposition of the International Cricket Council) doesn't affect me in any way."

The ICC and national governing bodies have warned current players against signing with the new American league because, like the ICL, it is unauthorised cricket.

New Zealand Cricket (NZC) chief executive Justin Vaughan was unhappy that Hadlee, until last year a national selector, had linked with the APL.

"It's regrettable he's aligned with an unsanctioned and unofficial circuit. It's certainly not preferable but he's got his life to lead," he told the Sunday Star-Times.

- NZPA