Country first, cash second for Black Caps

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New Zealand's leading cricketers have forsaken sums ranging from $500,000 to $1 million each to play for the Black Caps in a home series against Australia instead of the lucrative Indian Premier League.

The two events clash from mid-March. New Zealand Cricket Players Association chief executive Heath Mills said Brendon McCullum, Daniel Vettori, Ross Taylor, Jesse Ryder, Kyle Mills and Jacob Oram will miss at least half of the IPL after agreeing yesterday to sign their annual contracts with New Zealand Cricket.

The Twenty20 event has been scheduled earlier than usual next year to accommodate the World T20 tournament in May in the Caribbean.

Despite having been bought in a player auction for sums up to $1.5m, the New Zealand players are paid only for the matches when in India and arriving late will not help them break into already settled sides.

"The players are to be applauded for putting playing for their country ahead of the money available in India," Mills said. "Some people will say, of course, that should be their priority, but I challenge people if they were put in the same situation with the chance to secure their futures what would they do?"

Mills said he could not guarantee that the players would put country before cash if the same circumstances arose.

"It has been a really difficult decision for them this time but we have got it across the line."

Mills called for the game's governors to devise better playing schedules so such clashes did not eventuate.

Earlier this year, Sri Lanka's tour to England was scrubbed because their senior players preferred to play in the IPL.

Mills said this could happen more often especially among the less-affluent cricket nations such as New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Indies and Bangladesh which were unable to match the pay packets of the IPL and other T20 tournaments being mooted.

Australia's players were less likely to face such tricky decisions because their earning power from their national board was greater along with England, South Africa and India.

- © Fairfax NZ News