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New Zealand tour to England 2013 to clash with IPL 6. posted under: New Zealand | All news |
The NZ tour of England looks likely to clash with IPL 6 next year, which might put players like New Zealand captain Ross Taylor, Daniel Vettori, Brendon McCullum, Nathan McCullum and Jesse Ryder in the difficult position of choosing between their tour and the T20 tournament.
Next year’s IPL is scheduled to start on April the 3rd and is expected to go on till the end of May, while the Kiwis’ warm up matches start on May the 4th.
New Zealand cricketers were first affected by this back in 2010 when they had to leave the world’s most lucrative cricket tournament halfway. The NZC (New Zealand Cricket) board had told the players that they would make sure nothing like that happened but now, it’s the same scenario all over again.
Back in August 2010, an eight-year agreement was signed between the NZC, the players association and the six major domestic associations that apparently cited a clear IPL window for NZ’s cricketers. Since then, there has been only one IPL tourney with no Kiwis leaving early.
Things are not looking good for the retired Kevin Pietersen as well, who will have to miss the crucial stages of the tournament as well, when the first test match starts on the 16th of May, 2013.
Now, the main question here is whether the New Zealanders go back to play for their country (which would obviously be the ‘right thing to do’ in the eyes of many people) or will they stick around for the short format siesta (remember, they have an eight-year agreement with the boards). These look like crucial testing times because if they stay back, they’ll have to face their home crowd. Some people think that money could also be a factor here as cricketers make enough dough in the IPL to not care about it for the rest of the year.
New Zealand’s warm up match against Derbyshire starts on May the 4th, and if the players decide to leave then, they’ll be missing out on a little under a month of the sixth installment of the IPL, which is highly anticipated. In the IPL 5, New Zealand cricketer Brendon McCullum played a huge part in the success of the Kolkata Knight Riders, who later went on to lift the trophy. Daniel Vettori was the captain of the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
If all the players choose the IPL over the country’s cricketing calendars, it would mark the IPL’s (and the BCCI’s) dominance over world cricket. This in turn could actually help cricketers in the long run as the NZC or any other cricket board or association wouldn’t even consider scheduling other tournaments during the IPL. But then again, the cricketers’ decisions would be affected by their performance in the first half of the T20 tournament. In-form players would want to stay back and those who were a little under par would want to leave. At the end of the day, it will be their choice to make. |
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