New Zealand and the IPL

From the Times:

Hadlee, the chairman of selectors, told me: "I made my thoughts well known to New Zealand Cricket. I felt that the tour starts the day the players assemble and while I understand and accept the decision made - the compromise with the players - it wasn't a good look arriving in this county without the captain and vice-captain."

Hadlee called for a window in the international schedule to allow the IPL to be played, or failing that he said that it must be made clear that international players have to be released for their full duties rather than arriving mid-tour. "International players have to be available for their countries," he said. "You can't blame the players for wanting to be in the IPL - gosh, look the money is very attractive for not a lot of work and effort - but the global game has to survive and not be compromised. There needs to be a total understanding that once international commitments are there either you are a part of it or not.These guys will pick up the money next year as there isn't a conflict."

New Zealand have also lost several first-choice players who opted to play in the unauthorised Indian Cricket League. Shane Bond, Lou Vincent, Craig MacMillan and Daryl Tuffey may all have played on this tour and Hadlee complained that "the ICL is eroding our player base".

Hadlee is far from alone in wishing that the IPL did not interfere with proper - that is to say test - cricket, but as he also infers, there is no point in trying to take a moral stand. The IPL has far more money than any test cricket board (other than India, who is behind it) and therefore will dangle a carrot large enough to tempt all but the most principled (ie best, and thus already highly paid). Large enough, that is, to destroy the game by depriving it of many participants, should it come to a clash. There is no point as one of the coments below the article says of the NZ board treating its players better; it just doesn't have the cash and never will.

The only answer is to reshape the international calendar to accommodate the IPL and, indeed, the ICL quite possibly. Many might object that there is no room left in the existing schedule (the players, normally vociferous on the issue of burnout, have been curiously quiet about having to summon the energy for eight or so overs' work for a few days in a month in return for a few hundred thousand pounds cash). The answer - from the point of view of not overkilling the golden goose of international cricket aside from anything else - is to dump at least 50% of 50 over matches, which have become very tedious in the light of 20/20 anyway.