KEY POINTS:
New Zealand Cricket's major associations are being advised to go global in the wake of Brendon McCullum's new-found allegiance to New South Wales.
The Otago and New Zealand wicketkeeper sparked headlines on both sides of the Tasman when he was released by Otago to play for New South Wales in the final of Australia's Twenty20 championship today.
McCullum will miss an important one-day match for Otago, against Wellington in Invercargill tomorrow but nevertheless got the green light from his association and NZC.
They insisted the clearance came only because Otago are guaranteed a place in the State Shield semifinals and McCullum will miss the playoffs because of national commitments.
NSW's motivation is that they will have access to McCullum for the $11 million Champions League in India in October if his Indian Premier League team, Kolkata Knight Riders, don't qualify.
New Zealand Cricket Players Association executive manager Heath Mills supported McCullum's shift and believed the signing would be the tip of the iceberg.
If, as expected, New Zealand is granted a place in the Champions League in the next two years, Mills suggested all six assoc-iations here will look to follow the lead of NSW.
"These sort of opportunities are going to become more and more frequent and I think we have to get our head around it," said Mills.
"Maybe our major associations need to start thinking now about getting in some overseas players on short-term deals to play in our Twenty20 competition.
"That would be great for our competition and those players would then be eligible to play for them in the Champions League should they qualify for that event."
The first Champions League scheduled for last year was postponed because of the bombings in Mumbai. It was set to include two domestic teams from Australia, South Africa and the IPL, with one each from England and Pakistan.
Any expansion, which could happen this year, is likely to include a New Zealand team and add enormous weight to the domestic Twenty20 competition.
"Maybe it won't be a surprise to see an Andrew Flintoff or a Kevin Pietersen come down here for 1-2 weeks to play for a side and make them eligible to play in the Champions League," Mills said.
Meanwhile, McCullum's move continued to cause reverberations in Australia.
Numerous commentators and columnists had their say, with most in support of the 27-year-old's deal, which was brokered by his manager, former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming.
Andrew Symonds described McCullum's selection at the expense of a local as being "un-Australian" but the Australian allrounder was called a hypocrite yesterday by NSW chief executive Dave Gilbert.
Gilbert noted Symonds was happy to bank A$1.5 million ($1.85 million) for playing for Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League.
Australian captain Ricky Ponting said the presence of overseas players on the domestic scene helped improve the standard of competition.
- NZPA
