Cricket: Sometimes bumper pay packets hide fish hooks

Corey Anderson. Photo / Getty Images

Corey Anderson, face of the future of New Zealand cricket and one of the game's brightest prospects, was bought for $866,000 at the Indian Premier League this week.

A bumper payday for the young all-rounder with the thunderous bat, right? Well, yes, but perhaps not to the extent the bare numbers would suggest.

The IPL auction is a weird business - or as Anderson put it "surreal". He felt like a house going under the hammer.

"It's a bit of a crazy time," the 23-year-old said. "It works in peculiar ways. It's a bit of a circus; you just watch and hold on."

Those who run the IPL franchises are not generally seen as munificent souls but as hard-minded business people who expect bangs for their considerable bucks. Then again, some are likely to look after their commodities better than others.

For example, it is common knowledge that the Mumbai Indians - owned by the wealthy Ambani family - and Chennai are popular destinations because players generally know they'll get a fair deal and be well looked after.

Certain other franchises are regarded far less fondly as penny-pinching, unscrupulous operations who'll sting players they don't take a shine to. The players know which franchises, in an ideal world, they would rather stay clear of.

Some deductions are unavoidable, such as withholding tax. But others are, to a degree, up to each franchise. There are regulations which are supposed to be adhered to by all eight franchises. But there is some wriggle room.

There's no fat cheque to be deposited on the last day of the IPL. Payments are staggered and often final payment does not reach the players until December of that year.

One notable change is around the Champions League. There was a rule that if teams failed to make the late event, players would forfeit 20 per cent of their auction price. That no longer applies and indeed there's a 10 per cent bonus for helping a franchise qualify.

As outrageous as it sounds, there have been occasions when PR obligations have been scheduled while players are still playing in their own countries. Therefore they were at risk of forfeiting a chunk of pay without a hope of fulfilling the requirement, although that situation is rarer now than in the early years.

Anderson is the type of player - young, clearly suited to the shortest version of the game and with 'star' power - who is likely to be well looked after by Mumbai.

He's unlikely to find they'll be looking to prune his payments at every turn. They'll look at him as a long-term investment.

The New Zealand Cricket Players' Association take a dim view of the IPL's treatment of players.

"Poorly," was boss Heath Mills' assessment of the way the IPL contracts players.

"The IPL contract is one of the poorest we have in cricket. The terms and conditions are heavily weighted in favour of the BCCI and the franchises. They wouldn't be acceptable in other playing environments around the world."