A poster child for cricket purists

Andrew Alderson, writing in the Herald on Sunday, runs his eye over a potential list of New Zealand's centrally contracted players and concludes, based on the case of Kane Williamson, that the path to riches need not necessarily be strewn with the jerseys of multiple T20 franchises.

Players are ranked across each format by selectors Mike Hesson and Bruce Edgar, with tests receiving twice the weighting of one-day and twenty20 internationals. The 20 highest aggregate scores are offered national contracts.

Even if Williamson is fourth on that list, he would earn an NZC salary in the vicinity of $175,000 with the top ranked player banking around $195,000.

Add international match payments, an English county contract and a gear endorsement deal and the forecast of Williamson's earnings in the coming year calculates to more than half a million dollars without having to don the gaudy colours of any international Twenty20 circus. That anoints him as a poster child for cricket purists.