Dylan Cleaver: Hay can't be left to fall through the cracks

Wherefore art thou, Greg Hay? The Major Associations released their contract lists on Friday and the overwhelming feeling is that self-interest has got in the way of pragmatism.

With a talent pool as shallow as New Zealand, the overriding imperative for the major associations must be to secure the next 72 best players in New Zealand

The associations would themselves mount a compelling counter-argument: that in the interests of autonomy, their only task would be to pick the 12 players that best suited their needs.

But where does that leave somebody like Hay, rated good enough to be on stand-by for the tour to England, but after a season of difficulty he now finds himself on the outer at Central Districts?

One major association source estimated that if it was widely known that Hay wasn't about to get a CD contract, at least two first-class teams would have tried to tempt the right-hander away from Nelson.

Blair Furlong, CD chief executive, said it was a tough decision to let Hay go but, with Jamie How and Michael Mason dropping off the central contracts list, and prolific batsmen Mathew Sinclair and Peter Ingram also failing to win New Zealand Cricket contracts, they were squeezed for room.

It basically came down to Hay and Brad Patton fighting for one spot and Patton had the runs on the board from last season while Hay, who scored a century but did nothing else, hadn't.

In seven first-class innings last season, Hay accumulated just 161 runs, 131 of them coming in one unbeaten innings. His first-class record is still strong, with an average north of 42 with four centuries.

"He's still a good player. He'll be back," Furlong said.

You hope he's right yet you can't help but think there should be a better system that prevents players of Hay's obvious ability falling through the cracks.

One executive wondered whether there should be a draft system in place whereby the major associations secured their top eight players and the remaining four contracts were given to players selected from a draft pool.

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TOP-LEVEL meetings will take place in Christchurch next week in an attempt to shore up a home schedule. There are still some Black Caps who have yet to sign central contracts after seeking and being granted an extension to their acceptance date. That expires on Friday. The delay is due to some Indian Premier League-contracted players wanting assurances the Australian in-bound tour will not preclude them from being available for their franchises.

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NEW ZEALAND Cricket have received assurances from Canterbury that their apparel sponsorship is not under threat. Canterbury's Bahrain-based owners put the company on the market after placing its European business into administration. The entire group, including divisions in Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Africa, the Middle East and the United States, is reported to be up for sale. An NZC spokesman said their deal was with the Australasian division and they had been notified that it was "business as usual". NZC signed with Canterbury last year as the iconic sportswear maker attempted to push into the cricket market.

The only thing that could make the West Indies Cricket Board look any sillier would be for its board, including increasingly comical president Julian Hunte, to start wearing large yellow wigs. If you're going to pick a fight with your players, you'd better be right. Given the mountains of information leaking out on cricket websites and through West Indies Players' Association releases, the WICB look very much as if they are stone, cold, motherless wrong ... about everything.