New Zealand Cricket confirms national contracts

New Zealand Cricket has confirmed that all 20 players offered International Playing Agreements have signed their contracts.

NZC Chief Executive Justin Vaughan said that six players had been granted an extension to confirm their contracts, and all had now signed.

The six players with existing contracts with the Indian Premier League (IPL), Daniel Vettori, Brendon McCullum, Kyle Mills, Jacob Oram, Jesse Ryder and Ross Taylor, had all been granted additional time while scheduling conflicts between the BLACKCAPS international programme and the IPL were clarified.

The 2010 IPL has been moved to an earlier date to accommodate the ICC World Twenty20, and is expected to commence on March 12 – clashing with a significant part of Australia’s scheduled tour to New Zealand.

“The final dates for the Australian tour are still to be confirmed,” said Vaughan, “but it is obvious that with the early commencement to the IPL in 2010 there will be a significant overlap.” 

“However all our players with IPL contracts who were offered a New Zealand Cricket contract have now signed. This is an admirable decision by each of these individuals and they should be applauded for it.  By signing their contracts they are sacrificing significant sums of money.

“Their decision helps to reinforce international cricket as the pinnacle of our sport, and clearly shows that representing New Zealand remains the biggest motivating factor for our leading players.”

“We appreciate this issue may recur again and the onus is on international cricket to proactively search for solutions so that players are not forced to make such difficult decisions in the future.”

Vaughan said discussions with players and the New Zealand Cricket Players Association throughout the past two weeks had been positive and constructive.