Cricket: Political minefield thwarts 'Indian Six'

Northern Districts' Hamish Marshall. Photo / Sarah Ivey

The New Zealand Cricket Players' Association will make no concessions to bully-boy tactics from the BCCI as a compromise is sought to allow the 'Indian Six' to play in the State Championship.

The BCCI on Friday removed Sachin Tendulkar and Dinesh Karthik from the Masters Twenty20 international that acted as a curtain-raiser to India's clash with New Zealand.

New Zealand Cricket, caught in a diplomatic nightmare, are trying to steer a middle course through a political minefield as the New Zealand Cricket Players' Association and BCCI, Indian cricket's governing body, fail to see eye-to-eye.

After withdrawing Tendulkar and Karthik on account of a former ICL player, Hamish Marshall, being included in the NZCPA Masters side, the BCCI have no choice but to prevent their players playing for any major association that has players with Indian Cricket League (ICL) links.

The ICL is regarded as a rebel league by Indian authorities.

Six test specialists - VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid, Amit Mishra, Murali Vijay, Laxmipathi Balaji and Dhawal Kulkarni - were to be divided among the teams to get some competitive cricket in before the test series.

But the NZCPA refuse to countenance the possibility of Daryl Tuffey, from Auckland, and possibly Canterbury's Chris Harris and Northern Districts' Marshall, who is this season playing as an overseas player, being withdrawn from their squads because of their ICL links.

"We're not against the Indians playing in our domestic competition, far from it," NZCPA's Heath Mills said.

"We'd love to see it but we can't sacrifice our principles and we certainly can't have a situation where New Zealand cricketers are unable to ply their trade in their own country on the say-so of the BCCI."

NZC general manager of cricket Geoff Allott is currently working through different scenarios that would give the 'Indian Six' match play without offending their home board.

One option would be for them to play in three or four teams, teams without ICL players, split over two rounds. A NZC spokesman said the ICL issue was just one issue.

"I'm not sure if Friday's events have had any impact," the spokesman said. "The ICL is just one of the factors as well as scheduling and the apportioning of players."

The players' association will not allow the major associations to be swayed into leaving any ICL-linked players out.

"We will fight that all the way," he said. "There's no way we'd stand for that. They're New Zealanders and they're perfectly entitled to play in a domestic league in their own country. We will not accept players being stood down because of the petty politics of another country."

Mills revealed he was asked whether he would withdraw Marshall, who now plays in New Zealand as an overseas player, from the Masters side to allow Tendulkar and Karthik to play on Friday night, but he refused.

"There was a discussion between Justin and I," Mills said. "But there was no pressure. Justin was entirely reasonable.

I mean, it's a fair enough question but I said 'absolutely not'. I fully understand the benefits of having Sachin play but Hamish is one of our members and that [withdrawing him] is just not on."

Indeed, if Mills had withdrawn Marshall he would have left himself open to accusations of hypocrisy having railed against national boards for making decisions based on political expediency rather than any firm principles.

He also denied he was being deliberately provocative in picking Marshall in the first place.

"It was us who were approached by Gary Kirsten to see if we could accommodate a couple of their guys, not the other way around," Mills said. Which made Niranjan Shah's comments all the more harder to fathom.

Shah, manager of the team in New Zealand, former board secretary and currently IPL vice-chairman, refused to comment to the Hindustan Times, saying: "This match is not important. Why should I comment on it?" If it was not important, why request two spots for your players?

"It's just silly. A silly, silly decision by the BCCI," Mills said.

"How on earth can you tell me this is the right outcome for cricket?

Everyone lost.

"India lost by not giving a couple of players a hit-out they needed, the Wellington public lost by not being able to see one of the world's greatest players, we lost because what should have been a totally positive experience was hijacked by petty politics."

ICC-brokered talks between the BCCI and ICL last week collapsed without resolution or even the hint of a compromise.