McMillan sets the record straight

Rebel with a cause

Sunday News

This time last year, big-hitting New Zealand maestro Craig McMillan had no idea what was in store for him when he sat down to set out his New Year's resolutions.

With an international schedule packed full of one-day cricket and a Twenty20 world championship in the pipeline, McMillan's future in the Black Caps looked bright.

Behind the scenes, however, the 31-year-old was struggling with being away from his young family for weeks on end and in October he finally announced his retirement from the international arena.

At the time McMillan had before him a number of offers, including one from the "rebel" Indian Cricket League, and shortly after he signed with the Kolkata Tigers.

Back in New Zealand having watched his side bow out in the semifinals after a successful opening tournament in India, McMillan reveals he has no regrets about the year that was.

"A lot of us headed over there not entirely sure about what we were getting ourselves into," McMillan told Sunday News.

"The biggest question mark I had about it was how competitive the cricket was going to be and the standard of the Indian players.

"I have to say, the intensity of the matches and the standard of the cricket was very high and it really did shock me a bit.

"There was no hit and giggle about it at all."

At McMillan's press conference to announce his retirement from the Black Caps due to personal reasons, New Zealand Cricket CEO Justin Vaughan admitted he hoped the Cantabrian would not sign with the ICL.

And while the decision was initially hard in the face of such comments, McMillan eventually chose his family's security before his loyalty to the organisation.

"It (the NZC) was only a small consideration to be honest. I retired for my own reasons and my next concern was about my family and what suited them best," he says.

"If that was playing in the ICL for three weeks out of the year, that's what I needed to do.

"It was a decision I had to make for personal reasons."

With a sense of efficiency that would make New Zealand's Rugby World Cup organisers blush, McMillan marvels at how quickly the ICL went from being the dream of TV magnate Subhash Chandra to reality.

"A lot of the planning had been done late. The light towers at the ground only went in five days before the tournament started and the actual ground itself was basically made from scratch in a month," he says.

"There were so many hurdles put in the way of them actually succeeding so to get this tournament up and finished is a huge achievement. It's already been successful and it's only going to get bigger and better from here."

Twenty20 cricket the new kid on the block emerged in the UK as a format to challenge the tried and true one-day and test cricket compositions in 2003.

And McMillan, no stranger to flaying the willow, admits the game was almost tailor-made for his aggressive style of play.

"I love playing the format and I think it suits my game. The best thing about it is it's a new, energetic, entertaining style of cricket," he says. "At times cricket can get a bit suffocating in terms of one-dayers and tests. I think that cricket really needed a boost and a lift and I believe Twenty20 has done that.

"The best thing about it is that it's bringing a different, younger crowd to the game people that wouldn't normally have gone to a cricket match. Twenty20 is an overall package. In the ICL they had Bollywood stars every night singing and dancing during the match. That was huge."

While talk of Bollywood stars and big crowds bodes well for the future, the ICL has courted controversy since the idea surfaced due to the fact it runs parallel and against the will of the all-powerful Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

But after a successful debut tournament and despite the politics, McMillan believed the fledgling competition is here to stay.

"Cricket is a religion over there and Indian fans would turn out to watch a back yard cricket match being played," he says.

"The tournament was held in a little industrial town just out of Chandigarh which wasn't a densely populated area. The ground held probably 8000 to 12,000 fans and most of the time it was full.

"The biggest problem they had was they had no access to a lot of the grounds because of the pressure put on by the BCCI. They effectively had to build their own ground.

"Subhash Chandra who is the owner of Zee TV and the founder of the ICL came and spoke to all the players and he sees this as a five-year plus project. They are going to hire the grounds and academies for 20 years.

"It's not going to be a fly-by-night as a lot of people from Indian Cricket were hoping it was going to be.

"The standard of fielding especially among the young Indian players was as high a standard as I have played in any international that's how good it was."

The ICL has outraged a number of international cricket boards, who believe it is poaching stars from representing their countries. Players who have signed from South Africa and Pakistan have been blackballed from playing international cricket again, while news reports have suggested the New Zealand and England cricketers may also be overlooked for selection.

But McMillan believes such a stance by any organising body would be short-sighted and not in the best interests of the game.

"The new competitions are exciting for cricket and the fact other people want to invest in the sport is something that most other codes would be delighted with," he says.

"Instead of focusing on power and control, they should be worrying about ensuring the best players are playing international cricket and that is still the pinnacle of sport.

"The ICL will not stop players honouring their contracts and playing for their countries so really, what is the problem?"

McMillan also took a pot-shot at the recently formed Indian Premier League which was set up by the BCCI in response to the ICL's popularity.

"Really, the IPL is a knee-jerk reaction to the ICL. The BCCI's own Twenty20 league hadn't started or been talked about before the ICL came along and there is a feeling among the young Indian players that domestic cricket in their country has been ignored for years," McMillan says.

"To put it simply, the BCCI got beaten to the punchbowl and now they are trying to pull out all the stops to try and stop it from being successful. With one tournament already completed and with four or five scheduled for next year that will not be the case.

"The ICL has stated in much the same fashion as the IPL that playing for your country comes first.

"It's been misinterpreted through the media and hasn't been corrected. The misconception is that one is sanctioned the IPL by the ICC and one is not the ICL.

"Neither have actually been sanctioned by the ICC. It seems to be something that people have run with and not corrected.

"The IPL has only been sanctioned by the BCCI and the last time I looked they weren't the governing body of world cricket.

"While NZ Cricket is very eager to do as the Indian Cricket Board says, it should be careful it doesn't devalue the international game by putting out a weakened team."