Daniel Vettori willing to play through pain

New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori has put off surgery on his bowling shoulder, fearing it could keep him out of cricket for up to 12 months. Vettori suffered a torn labrum in his left shoulder during the ICC World Twenty20 in June but has managed to bowl despite the pain and is currently among the best allrounders in world cricket.

"I can still bowl with it. It sometimes hurts but I can manage it," Vettori told the Waikato Times. "It's frustrating, but it's not stopping me from doing my main parts. Surgery would fix it but that would also mean six months to a year out. That's something I don't want to deal with."

Vettori has been resting since the end of the home Tests against Pakistan, in which he took ten wickets and scored 287 runs including a century, but is expected to make his first appearance for Northern Districts in a Twenty20 game against Auckland at Mt Maunganui on January 2.

He will be available for the home series against Bangladesh in February and the following tour by Australia. The Australians were stretched by West Indies but Vettori said it would be wrong to underestimate them. He also refused to predict if New Zealand would win a Test, let alone the series.

"That's one of those horrific questions," he said. "I can see headlines made out of the answer so I'd rather not say. They're still proving themselves to be a very good team. They have a fair few injuries, yet can bring guys in that immediately perform. That says they still have depth, even if they're missing those great names like Warne, Gilchrist and McGrath."

The series clashes with the first half of the IPL and Vettori hoped his best players would not choose the lucrative Twenty20 tournament over representing their country.

"I think that's just acknowledging the current environment," Vettori said. "The pull comes through remuneration and New Zealand Cricket has to find a way to accommodate that and find some sort of solution. We don't want to see any of our top players not available for New Zealand and that's the goal of the players' association and New Zealand Cricket."

His views were echoed by Heath Mills, the New Zealand Cricket Players Association chief, who said it was very important to begin negotiations with NZC to prevent player drain.

"I've not spoken about figures with New Zealand Cricket and we haven't thrashed those around with the players at all because we need to get into the negotiations and work out, or hear, what New Zealand Cricket's financial position is," Mills told the Dominion Post. "We do have a good relationship with New Zealand Cricket and this is their problem as much as it is ours and we need to work hard together to find the right outcome."