Cricket: Players advised to skip the IPL

New Zealand Cricket chief executive Justin Vaughan. Photo / Hawke's Bay Today

New Zealand involvement in the Indian Premier League has been thrown into serious doubt.

The Herald understands that within the next 24 hours, the players' associations of New Zealand, Australia, England and South Africa will strongly recommend their players pull out of the IPL, due to start in Mumbai on March 12.

While all the players will be able to make their own decisions, the recommendation of the players' associations will be to miss the tournament based on a report by independent security adviser Reg Dickason, which states that a terrorism threat against the IPL is real and "credible".

The report also casts doubt on the ability of the local authorities to deliver security management plans.

NZ Cricket players' association manager Heath Mills would not confirm his organisation's position yesterday but said he had talked to the five players involved - Brendon McCullum, Shane Bond, Jacob Oram, Daniel Vettori and Ross Taylor - to brief them on the report.

He said a statement was likely within the next 24 hours as to the positions of the players' associations and that it would be a united front.

With contracts ranging from US$750,000 ($1.07 million) for Bond, to US$400,000, the players stand to lose millions in earnings if they refuse to travel.

Stephen Fleming also has a coaching role with Chennai, Scott Styris is contracted by Deccan Chargers but did not make their 23-man squad this year, and Jesse Ryder and Kyle Mills have been invalided out of the tournament.

New Zealand Cricket chief executive Justin Vaughan said he had digested the contents of the Dickason report but the national boards were limited in what they could tell their players.

NZC will likely come under massive pressure from IPL commissioner Lalit Modi and the BCCI, Indian cricket's governing body, to persuade the players to travel.

"I don't quite know how we would do that," Vaughan said. "We stand a little bit aside from this as it's officially a domestic competition and our players are independent contractors ... the [national] boards, per se, don't have a say in this."

Vaughan fought hard to increase the numbers of New Zealanders playing in the IPL, a number that could decrease if there were mass pull-outs, with the existing three-year contracts due to end after this tournament with no guarantee of renewal.

Asked whether he would be disappointed if the players' associations recommended a hard line to their constituents, Vaughan paused before saying:

"I think it would be very disappointing if the IPL did not take place in India this year. If that was to happen, it would not be a good thing for world cricket."

While Hockey New Zealand yesterday gave the all-clear for the Black Sticks to travel to Delhi for the World Cup, the situation is vastly different.

The World Cup is being played at one venue in Delhi, with all the teams staying at one hotel close to the playing venue that will be in virtual lock-down mode.

The IPL is due to be played at 12 venues across India, meaning multiple airline routes, multiple airports, multiple hotels and multiple police jurisdictions.

Last year's IPL was shifted at late notice to South Africa.