Cricket: Quick turnaround easy in bold new T20 world

Tillakaratne Dilshan at Blake Park. Photo / APN

David Hussey's diary for today makes for some interesting reading.

It will look something like this: Fly into Auckland at 11.30am; clear Customs and get boots cleaned for free 12.15pm; get frustrated in Auckland traffic and arrive at Colin Maiden Park 12.45pm; shake hands with new Northern Districts team-mates 1pm; check out the wicket 1.02pm; have a sandwich and cup of tea until 1.30pm; warm up until 1.45pm; don the pads, have a few throwdowns and get ready to bat any time from 2pm.

It doesn't quite match Tillakaratne Dilshan's entrance at Blake Park at Mt Maunganui last season, when he was helicoptered to the ground, but it's worthy of a highly commended.

The Australian limited overs cricketer and brother of 'Mr Cricket', Michael, will play a solitary game for Northern Districts in the HRV Cup.

It makes him eligible if ND make the Champions League and is a useful back-up plan in case his home state of Victoria fail to make it through from Australia's Big Bash in January.

It might also depend on if he gets an English county contract or has his US$625,000 Indian Premier League contract renewed at Kolkata.

Hussey joins Victorian team-mate Brad Hodge, who is playing the first four rounds of the Twenty20 season for the Knights. His circumstances are a good case study on how much cricket has been revolutionised since the advent of Twenty20.

Greg Dyer, the head of cricket at Essentially Group, who represents the likes of Daniel Vettori, has negotiated most of the contracts for overseas players joining the HRV Cup. Much of it is done via the internet or video conferencing.

"David has never met the team or the coach [Grant Bradburn] and he sorted out his uniform sizes, as well as where he'd bat and bowl, by email," Dyer says.

As a cricket mercenary, that places extra pressure on Hussey to perform, given the efforts to get him over for what is estimated to be a fee of around $4000. He will need to shake off any lethargy smartly after his transtasman flight.

The same applied to Hodge, who stood out in a lacklustre ND loss to Central Districts on Thursday. He top scored with 35 off 39 balls and bowled four tidy overs, taking one wicket for 23.

To Hussey's credit, he had the option of flying back tonight at 7pm but chose not to. He asked to have a few post-match beers with his new (old) team-mates and Dyer also organised golf clubs for him to have a hit tomorrow before an evening flight home.

This new world of cricket recruitment is being fuelled by the players as well. Social networking through Facebook, twitter and email means those who have previously played together keep in touch on a regular basis. Respected players like Vettori, who has been in a number of international competitions, can assist a coach or a chief executive's recruitment plans.

Hussey's case contrasts with the situation as recently as the 1980s and 1990s, when overseas players would rarely come out for anything less than a full summer.

The situation of Northern Districts bringing in high-profile international talent such as Hussey, Hodge, David Warner and Herschelle Gibbs raises a test of strategy in this summer's HRV Cup.

Compare their roster to CD, who have recruited steady English all-rounders Ian Blackwell and Michael Yardy to play the entire tournament. The initial evidence - a convincing 78-run CD win over ND - points to the professionalism of those players as an asset to help them retain their title.

Alternatively, ND should pull more fans and revenue but cutting and pasting means they face the risk of the team failing to gel. The consequences could be failure to qualify for the ultimate prize - a spot in the Champion's League.

It will be an experiment worth monitoring.