Vettori guidance key to avoiding anarchy

Photo: Brendon O'Hagan

Captain Dan: Black Caps cricket captain Daniel Vettori, at a press conference in Auckland yesterday, has stayed loyal to New Zealand.

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Daniel Vettori's leadership is seen as the key factor in averting a potentially devastating upheaval in New Zealand cricket.

New Zealand's six Indian Premier League (IPL) players on Friday all signed their NZ Cricket contracts, avoiding a situation where our best players could have forfeited their contracts in order to scoop a massive payday in the IPL.

The conflict arose because of a sche-duling clash: Australia's tour here next year running across the start of the third IPL, which had been pushed forward because of a clash with the Twenty20 world cup in the West Indies.

By signing their contracts to play for New Zealand this summer, the six players Vettori, his deputy Brendon McCullum, Jacob Oram, Ross Taylor, Jesse Ryder and Kyle Mills have all foregone large sums of money, up to $US350,000 ($NZ533,000) in McCullum's case.

NZC chief executive Justin Vaughan said yesterday: "The fact is, the players who have IPL contracts have had to make a significant financial sacrifice to commit to New Zealand Cricket. It's certainly a decision that I am fully supportive of but I also appreciate how difficult it was."

While New Zealand Cricket Players' Association boss Heath Mills was at pains to point out that all six players made their decisions independently, the Sunday Star-Times understands Vettori played a crucial role in private conversations with his less certain team-mates to get all of them across the line.

Vettori called it the hardest decision he has made in his professional life.

"I don't think any of us have had a decision like this. The IPL has changed the whole landscape of world cricket. It was obviously a long process and a lot of guys put a lot of thought into it. I can only speak for myself here but I'm only 30 years old and I still have a lot of goals I want to achieve with New Zealand.

"It's always a difficult decision because guys have families and they had to work through those things. In the end, our priority at this stage is to play for New Zealand.

"We also realise that if these situations continue to come up, it's going to be difficult for players to continue to turn down that money. We implore the powers that be to do something so these decisions don't have to be made every year."

Vettori said a potential public backlash had no bearing on his thinking.

"Most people understand the reasons the decision took a while. If you put anyone from any walk in life into this situation they would have a long hard think about and a lot of them would not have come to the same conclusion we did."

Mills emphasised the problem the International Cricket Council faced in sorting out a clash between test cricket and what is effectively an Indian domestic competition, albeit a powerful one.

"This has been a good outcome for New Zealand Cricket but I couldn't sit here and say that if the players were faced with the same decision next year or the year after that we would have the same outcome."

All involved hoped this brief, but important stand-off, would resonate with the ICC and clarify the need for an international schedule that incorporates the IPL tournament. It's hoped a similar scenario effecting England players, who have played little IPL cricket because it regularly clashes with the start of the English season, will further raise awareness of the scheduling issue. "This may become a pressure point in England and I would be surprised if there is not huge pressure put on their board around scheduling so their players can participate in the IPL," Mills said.

Vaughan said he was still negotiating with Australia about their schedule, with the snag being Australia now demands a 10-day rest period between a second and third test of a series, as is happening in the Ashes series. NZC still wants to keep a three-test series and the rest period is what is pushing the tour into April, restricting the NZ players' earning power in India. Vaughan said no players would be allowed to miss a test match or one-dayer to get to India sooner.

- © Fairfax NZ News