Kiwi cricket stars need decide between national duty and IPL lucre

Wellington (New Zealand), Mar.28 (ANI): The choice of making a commitment to play for the country versus earning mind-boggling cash from the lucrative Indian Premier League (IPL) 20-20 tournament, is expected to again cause some sleepless nights to New Zealand's players after the Test series against the Australians concludes on Wednesday.

They have to decide whether to commit to the national team in the 2010-11 season or take their chances as freelancers.

Now that domestic duties are done for the year, the national selectors have to name a Twenty20 world cup squad and decide who will get a New Zealand Cricket contract for the 2010-11 season.

The last time around, several Kiwi players delayed signing their NZC contracts because this current series against Australia was supposed to run to three tests, and therefore, would have affected their IPL earning potential.

New Zealand Cricket CEO Justin Vaughan says the amount of cricket played by current Black Caps meant they could be involved in a "cricket environment" for 300 days out of 365 starting from the Twenty20 World Cup in April-May.

"They will hardly get any time at home, and yes, they are well-paid but they have wives and families - and a lot of this team have very young families - and we have to be able to manage that so our key players are available as much as possible," stuff.co.nz quoted Vaughan, as saying.The players need breaks from time to time and that's something we're keen to accommodate. We cannot ignore the fact that there's so much cricket, so if they need a break then we have to manage that," he added.

"We're not quite the same as the rugby union. But we need to be able to work around the opportunities players face, as well as accepting they need breaks from time to time," Vaughan said. (ANI)