Dont force players to choose between country and IPL: Vettori

NZ skipper Daniel Vettori said players might opt for IPL if forced to make a choice between national duty and the Twenty20 league.

A day after skipper Daniel Vettori and five of his team mates Brendon McCullum,Jacob Oram,Ross Taylor,Jesse Ryder and Kyle Mills signed New Zealand Cricket contracts to make themselves available for the home series against Australia next March,the left-arm spinner said they might opt for IPL if forced to make a choice between national duty and the Twenty20 league.

Its a difficult decision and people have families and other issues to work through but our priority was to play for New Zealand, Vettori was quoted as saying by Herald on Sunday. We want to make the most of that and have a successful team. But we realise if these situations continue to come up it will be difficult for players to continue to turn down the money, so we implore the powers that be to find a solution so we dont have to make these decisions every year, he said.

Vettori said had it been a team like Bangladesh,and not Australia,some of the players might have opted for IPL. If Bangladesh were here rather than Australia it might have been an easier decision for players. It didnt come into my thinking because my priority is to play for New Zealand, said Vettori who represents Delhi Daredevils in the IPL.

Kyle Mills,who dons Mumbai Indians jersey,said Vettori may have his eyes on the series against Australia but some other players were torn between the two before eventually opting for national duty. Dan might not have lost any sleep over his decision but I certainly know a number of other guys have, Mills said.

Some of them have agonised for weeks. Theres no doubt the guys were acutely aware they they were never going to win a popularity contest if they disappeared to the IPL in favour of playing Australia. Its a good outcome for New Zealand cricket but we couldnt say that if the players had to make the same decision next year or the year after we would get the same outcome. In fact,it wouldnt surprise me if we didnt, he said.

With their home series against Australia reduced from three to two Tests,all Kiwi players are expecting to feature in next years IPL at some point of time. Mills said unless a window is created for IPL,countries like New Zealand would continue to suffer.

International cricket will be marginalised because players will start to make decisions that they want to play in IPL. If we dont create a window for it,the smaller nations will be marginalised. Thats not right answer for cricket.

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An Australian might earn near 2 million from their national contract and that might outweigh their IPL contract but as IPL grows remuneration from that will also increase and it will become an issue for the players, Mills said.