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SYDNEY - Not so long ago Brendon McCullum would have laughed if you'd told him he'd play cricket in India for the spectacularly-named Kolkata Knight Riders.
And that he'd earn around $300,000 from just four Twenty20 games for the Riders before joining his New Zealand teammates for a full tour of England.
Welcome to the wealthy, wacky world of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
It all starts on Friday when McCullum's Riders meet New Zealand teammate Ross Taylor's Bangalore Royal Challengers, the first of 59 matches spread over six weeks.
McCullum, Taylor, Daniel Vettori, Jacob Oram and Kyle Mills will play only three or four matches apiece before hightailing it to England to meet New Zealand Cricket's (NZC) May 1 deadline, a fortnight before the first test.
Retired former captain Stephen Fleming and allrounder Scott Styris, now playing one-day internationals only, will play the full tournament and collect their full salaries, US$350,000 ($451,612) and US$175,000 respectively.
After reaching a compromise with NZC, the five current internationals will collect about one-third of their IPL salaries, paid on a pro rata basis.
It still means the chosen five will be hit up to pay for a few dinners for their poorer teammates on arrival in England.
McCullum was signed for a US$700,000 salary, meaning he'll still pocket an estimated $300,000 for a fortnight's work.
The paydays for Oram (US$675,000) and Vettori (US$625,000) work out to about $3000 per delivery.
Meanwhile their opponents in the upcoming three-test series stroll glumly around the practice nets at home, forbidden by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to participate.
ECB chairman Giles Clarke created ripples by saying all centrally contracted players will be barred from next year's tournament as well, to rest for the Ashes series.
Test captain Michael Vaughan offered a terse response today: "I think we're all naive if we don't think that England players are going to end up playing in the IPL."
Allrounder Dimitri Mascarenhas, who isn't centrally contracted, is the only England player lining up in India.
The brainchild of cricket powerbroker Lalit Modi, the vice-president of the Indian board, was modelled on European club soccer and is all about money.
The IPL sold its television rights for US$908 million, the franchises were bought for a combined US$700 million and the tournament has a promotional budget of US$108 million.
The team who win the June 1 final will get US$3 million in prizemoney.
The biggest earner from the February player auction was Indian gloveman Mahendra Singh Dhoni who was snapped up by the Chennai franchise for US$1.5 million, while Andrew Symonds was snared by Hyderabad for a healthy US$1.3 million.
All the stars are there, with former foes Ricky Ponting and Sourav Ganguly teaming up for the Knight Riders, while Shane Warne will captain his formerly despised South African adversary Graeme Smith in the Rajasthan Royals.
Australia's Channel 10 thought interest would be high outside India, and paid a reported A$10-15 million for television rights for the next five years.
With so much cash floating around there's been inevitable hiccups, with major news agencies and Indian media groups threatening to boycott the tournament over coverage restrictions by IPL organisers.
Cricket websites were this week barred from covering matches from the grounds and using pictures provided by photo agencies, instead being directed to a syndicated image service provided by an "American company".
But aside from the Bollywood stars and major companies who bid millions for teams and individual players, does anyone care who wins?
The TAB has framed a market with Hyderabad's Deccan Chargers, Styris' team, $4 favourites with the likes of Australian big guns Symonds and Adam Gilchrist and Pakistani whirlwind Shahid Afridi.
The Chennai Super Kings, with Dhoni, Fleming, Oram, Matthew Hayden and Muttiah Muralitharan, are next best at $6 while the Knight Riders are at $6.50.
- NZPA
