Cricket: NZC winners in McCullum IPL sweep

Brendon McCullum. Photo / Otago Daily Times

There are two big winners out of Brendon McCullum's hefty Indian Premier League contract - the player and New Zealand Cricket. McCullum was snapped up in the weekend's auction at Bangalore by his old employers at Kolkata Knight Riders for this year's fifth edition of the T20 league for a cool US$900,000 ($1,076,000).

It was the fourth highest price paid at the auction, behind the frankly bizarre maximum of US$2 million for young Indian allrounder Ravindra Jadeja by defending champions Chennai Super Kings; US$1.4 million for Sri Lankan star Mahela Jayawardene by the Delhi Daredevils; and US$1 million for Indian seamer Vinay Kumar by Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Under the deal, McCullum, provided he stays fit and in form, stands to pocket the lot.

The New Zealand acting captain was in the auction after his Kochi Tuskers franchise, to whom he was contracted for this year, was booted out after last season.

New Zealand are not on international duty until well after the IPL ends in late May, leaving McCullum and the other New Zealand players available for the entire competition.

Twenty per cent of McCullum's fee is a league fee. Players must play to get that portion. Simply being available to play is not enough. The other 80 per cent is on a pro rata basis. You play, you get paid.

On top of that, the Board of Control for Cricket in India pay all cricket boards 10 per cent of each of their players' contracts, so New Zealand Cricket will pocket a tidy US$90,000 out of that piece of business by Kolkata.

Only New Zealand captain Ross Taylor's US$1 million paid by Rajasthan Royals last year, tops McCullum's fee among New Zealand players.

McCullum singlehandedly gave the IPL the sort of high voltage start-up any business would cherish. He clobbered 158 off 73 balls in the first game in year one, 2008, for Kolkata against Bangalore.

McCullum spent the next two years at Kolkata before moving to Kochi. "It's unfortunate that Kochi is no longer part of the competition," McCullum said last night. "I hadn't put a lot of emphasis on the auction and what was going to happen, but it's great to be back at Kolkata because of my familiarity with the set up, the ground and the accommodation."

Allrounder Doug Bracewell was the only other New Zealander picked up at the auction out of 10 who put their names on the list. He was snapped up for US$50,000 by Delhi Daredevils where his team mates will include high-profile England batsman Kevin Pietersen, Jayawardene and South African quick Morne Morkel.

There is a question mark over the involvement of two other New Zealand players, offspinning allrounder Nathan McCullum and batsman Jesse Ryder. They were on deals with the Pune Warriors franchise, whose main sponsor, Sahara, pulled out of its contract with the BCCI, and the IPL, an hour before the auction, citing general unhappiness over their dealings with the BCCI. It's a wait-and-see situation for the pair, although their contracts are guaranteed to be paid out by the BCCI. There has been communication between the players and their national association.

A nine-team schedule has been drawn up, and the likelihood is of either a rapprochement with Sahara or another company stepping in at short notice.

T20 KIWIS

New Zealanders at the IPL:
* Dan Vettori (Royal Challengers Bangalore)
* Ross Taylor (Rajasthan Royals)
* Brendon McCullum (Kolkata Knight Riders)
* James Franklin (Mumbai Indians)
* Doug Bracewell (Delhi Daredevils)
* Scott Styris (Chennai Super Kings)
* Jesse Ryder (Pune Warriors*)
* Nathan McCullum (Pune Warriors*)
* Awaiting developments after sponsor Sahara pulled out.
The IPL starts on April 4 with the final scheduled for May 27.