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While talk swirls about a franchise-based Southern Hemisphere Twenty20 league, New Zealand Cricket are close to signing off on an agreement that will see the winner of this season's State Twenty20 competition play in next year's Champions League. That will be a boon to the game here, with players gunning for US$5 million in prizemoney, but could cause major contract controversy.
The domestic contracts run from October 1 to April 15 while the Champions League window is likely to stay in the late September slot it has been given this year.
That opens up the possibility for players to jump ship to the major association that won the State Twenty20 in the hope of being selected for the cash-rich tournament.
This could create several potential inflammatory issues, the most obvious that players who helped earn the province the right to play in the Champions League being squeezed out of the tournament by an influx of high-profile players.
This wound could partially be salved by an agreement on the division of any prize money - the winners this year will pocket US$2m of the US$5m pot, with both figures expected to increase in 2009 - but these types of arrangements rarely run smoothly.
Widespread player movement could also see New Zealand's limited quality-player resources being stacked too heavily in one major association, reducing the standard of the State Championship and State Shield.
Throwing more confusion on the issue is the fact that the 20 centrally contracted players have only needed to decide a few days before the season which major association they are going to represent. For argument's sake, if Otago won the Twenty20 league this summer, the southern association might suddenly become attractive to players, even those without ties to the region.
New Zealand Cricket Players' Association manager Heath Mills acknowledged there was potential for those scenarios to occur but said: "We haven't thought through the issue in enough detail to provide any answers yet".
As a rule, the NZCPA is vigorously opposed to any regulations restricting the ability of players to move from one province to another.
Meanwhile, the cricket boards of Australia, South Africa and New Zealand confirmed on Friday they had agreed in principle to a multi-nation franchise-owned Twenty20 tournament based on the IPL, which they hope to launch by 2011. The concept will involve two separate conferences - an eastern division based in Africa and a western division in Australasia - and the top sides from each will progress to the finals. It will not replace the existing domestic Twenty20 competitions. Instead, it is most likely to be held in October, with each nation free to also retain their state- or provincial-based tournaments.
