Mark Richardson: World Cup is worth its weight

When it comes to establishing the worth of the 20 best New Zealand cricket players to New Zealand Cricket [NZC] in order - and their corresponding retainer payments - an extra weighting of .25 has been given to test cricket over one-day cricket.

Simply speaking it means tests are still considered the highest form of the game, therefore encouraging test specialists who will not be so acutely penalised financially by missing all the match payments and prize money on offer in ODIs.

And test specialists are something NZC could do with quite nicely at the moment.

As of June 1, our best players will have their new contracts and rankings and perhaps the weighting this year should be reversed. Now anyone who has known me over the past four years would be screaming "charlatan" right now and I guess they would be right. I was one of the most vociferous advocates for test players getting preferential treatment and was constantly moaning about the lack of game time and subsequent match fee earning potential.

Perhaps it's a little easier to be an observer than a martyr.

Why play the turncoat? Because this is a World Cup year. They come around once every four years and during that year become the be-all and end-all. After all, it is the selling of TV rights from this tournament that provide a substantial chunk of the pot that gets divided between our international and major association cricketers. You just have to remember how quickly NZC agreed to India's plans to dump the test tour of New Zealand - a big earning tour - because it would disrupt the Indians' World Cup build-up.

Let's face it, until after the World Cup, test cricket becomes a bit of a pain in the proverbials.

This World Cup should be a priority for NZC because it is our best chance at this tournament for some time. And John Bracewell's job could hang on a good showing in the Caribbean as it would allow him to brush the poor test showings under the carpet.

So what is the harm in NZC concentrating on its current strength, and as such why shouldn't the player rankings for this year reflect this priority?

Players like Craig McMillan and even Chris Harris may get a financial lifeline. Bracewell still sees value in McMillan as a one-day player and the Caribbean's slow pitches could play into Harris' hands.

This thinking could also hamper the meteoric rise up the rankings of James Franklin as he is not seen as indispensable in the one-day format.

James Marshall would get the chop and Michael Papps could suffer as our search for test openers would have to wait.

How it hurts me to write that.