Get out of cricket's Dark Ages

Crikey, cricket writer Jonathan Millmow certainly got on his high horse and after galloping up a steep hill, preached from his mountain top in Monday's Dominion Post. Nothing wrong with a bloke expressing a point of view, but was he at the same press conference as the other cricket correspondents?

I understand some of his holier than thou sentiment, but I fear he is coming from a moralistic position that belongs in the Dark Ages. If you're a professional cricketer, it's your job to play cricket. It's a privilege and an honour to play for your country, sure, but if the opportunity comes to make a life-changing decision for the betterment of yourself and your family then you would have to be a mug not to at least consider it.

The cold hard fact of the matter is that if indeed it ever was about the "joy" of cricket and conversations with your kids on the rocking chair in 2030, it's not just about that anymore. Professional sport is about getting paid to play, it is about making the most of your talents and doing something that pays the bills - and if you're lucky then that is also something that you love most days.

It is easy to hold international sportspeople to a higher standard than we would apply to ourselves . But if we were offered two, three, four, ten times our current wage to go and do a shortened form of the job that we are good at, shoulder-to-shoulder and face-to-face with the best practitioners in the world, many "men in the street" would be seizing the opportunity and being slapped on the back for it - not smacked on the hand. If your skills are in film-making, banking, IT, golf, football or advertising then it's fine to head off to New York, London or Bangalore to make a killing, but not if it's cricket.

Mr Millmow's opening line talked about how the New Zealand IPL players don't "give a rat's about playing for their country anymore". They don't care so much they have forgone six-figure sums in order to turn out for New Zealand in a home series against Australia! They do care.

I'm as gutted as anyone that the Test series is only two matches, but it was only ever going to be two Tests. The players never negotiated the dissolution of the third Test - that is a myth. It was never on the cards especially once you consider the workload restrictions that Cricket Australia has in place that require a 10-day break and a three-day match between the second and third Test matches of a series. The dates don't work.

The villains here are not the players, nor is it an issue that can be resolved by the Kiwi triumvirate of Justin Vaughan, Daniel Vettori and Heath Mills. Their hands are tied and the people with the knowledge of the knots are the administrators of cricket's powerhouses. The big guns in Dubai, Lord's, Jolimont and Johannesburg should be the ones lying awake at night.

The fact is that the IPL is proving to be bigger than Ben Hur, and its appeal extends far beyond the eyeballs and moral high ground where traditionalists dwell.

The ICC fell in behind the BCCI's moves to quash any non-establishment cricket competitions, with the result that the BCCI's monopolistic and all-powerful hold over cricket's moneybags was retained. Via the IPL, the BCCI puts market-rate contracts in front of players with fees that pop the eyes of most New Zealanders, West Indians, Pakistanis, and Sri Lankans and players are drawn like a moths to the IPL flame.

Meanwhile, the ICC is arguing about how much money to give Zimbabwe, sitting on its hands as the IPL behemoth rumbles along, and raving on about the "primacy of international cricket".  If you're an English, Australian or South African player and you've already got a couple of million in the bank or on the table then it is probably a bit easier not to "bemoan the fact" that a tour to New Zealand overlaps with a tournament in India.

The players are human, not patriotic robots or robotic patriots.  Mr Millmow seems to be suggesting they are mercenary scum who have taken the money and run. Wouldn't the vitriol be better directed at those who have made the decisions to ensure the IPL is now uncontested as a cricketer's greatest payday? This playing environment was created by the ICC - the very same administrators who stand by impotently and expect players to turn a blind eye to the huge sums of money on offer and play for their international teams.

The players aren't saying: "We don't care about New Zealand cricket." What they are saying is: "Isn't it a bit ridiculous that this life-changing opportunity to play with the best and earn the best can't be squeezed into the calendar for six weeks a year?" Create a window, and everyone will be happy from establishment CEOs, players, right through to IPL franchise owners. Presumably the BCCI will need to cough up some peanuts in order for the ICC carving out a window but it is a small price to pay for cricketing world peace and unencumbered access to the best players each and every year. And the international programme still has 46 weeks to squeeze in a few games.

This "IPL window" issue is the one we should be seeking to understand. A failure to install a window will continue to see the fabric of international cricket under threat every year, and if the best players end up playing in the IPL and not for their country, then that becomes a very slippery slope indeed.

"Dad, did you ever score a hundred against England?"

"Yes son, it was against Toby Whatsisname and Malcolm Thingamebob - most of their best players were off playing for Bengal when we played them because our tour clashed with the IPL that year."