IPL or warm-ups?
Five New Zealand players are set to play in the IPL which clashes with the start of their tour of England
Nishi Narayanan
25-Feb-2013
Five New Zealand players are set to play in the IPL which clashes with the start of their tour of England. New Zealand Cricket will take a decision next week on whether to allow the players to participate in the IPL games or to ask them to be in England for the warm-up matches at the start of the tour. New Zealand Herald's David Leggat analyses the upsides and downsides of the three likely scenarios.
Arriving in England with one-third of the squad absent and a group of fill-ins being recruited out of league cricket. Bad look, bad for morale. The players' perspective, as put more than once by Vettori, is that appearances don't matter.It is the modern young man's view in a rapidly changing cricket world. Pragmatism in this case would allow the players the best of all worlds - pick up some cash in India, then move on to what they all insist is where their heart lies, playing for their country. NZC's difficulty is finding a happy middle ground. They won't win in the court of public opinion if they let the players arrive late in England.
In the same paper, Adam Parore writes that for Daniel Vettori the smart money lies in taking the high ground.
At issue is about US$300,000 ($367,500) of lost earnings if he makes the call to be on tour with the Black Caps in England from day one. In the overall scheme of things this is small bananas for Dan. He will make at least $1 million per annum for each of the next two years and I would imagine he will then sign for a further three as well. As it is, he will pick up about $300,000 for the couple of weeks that he will be on IPL duty ...
Nishi Narayanan is a staff writer at ESPNcricinfo