IPL glitz looms large for key Black Caps
New Zealand Cricket has waved goodbye to 11 of its top players and won’t see them again until midMay.
The glitz of the Indian Premier League beckons, as New Zealand’s largest contingent in the world’s premier Twenty20 competition flew out yesterday before tomorrow’s (NZ time) opener.
Eight, possibly nine of them will pause in the first week of April and hear their names read out in the Black Caps’ 15-strong World Cup squad.
The IPL final is scheduled for May 12, then the cup-bound players get a short freshen-up holiday before the squad departs New Zealand on May 19.
Their first warmup game is against India on May 25 in London, and their tournament opener against Sri Lanka on June 1 in Cardiff.
NZC is in the minority of the World Cup nations in granting its contracted players annual leave to attend the entire IPL.
It’s a key part of the Master Agreement with the Cricket Players’ Association, and enables the likes of Kane Williamson and Trent Boult to more than double their approximate annual NZC earnings of $400,000.
Cricket Australia pays its top players about eight times that, and requires they miss the early part of the IPL for the five-match series against Pakistan, then assemble in Brisbane for a cup camp in early May.
NZC’s stance means the full cup squad won’t assemble until just before that May 19 departure, with some of their bowlers seriously low on overs when most thrive on regular work.
The likes of Lockie Ferguson (Kolkata), Mitchell Santner (Mumbai), Colin de Grandhomme and Tim Southee (both Bangalore) aren’t guaranteed playing time for their franchises, with a restriction of four overseas players per XI. The Netflix documentary
Cricket Fever on the 2018 Mumbai Indians – which featured starring roles by Mitchell McClenaghan and bowling coach Shane Bond – regularly showed Adam Milne in dressing room shots but the fast bowler never played a game last season.
Colin Munro (Delhi) spoke at Thursday’s NZC awards of how tough it is not getting regular game time over the seven-week rollercoaster.
NZC’s high performance general manager Bryan Stronach said the hardest part of monitoring Black Caps at the IPL was getting them to bowl enough, although it was preferable to being overworked.
‘‘They’ve all got a loading plan that [bowling coach] Shane Jurgensen puts together and communicates with the IPL franchises and individually with the players. We get updates every day,’’ he said.
Williamson, Boult and McClenaghan will likely feature the most of the IPL New Zealanders. Others like Ferguson, Munro and Ish Sodhi have potential to play key roles if given early opportunities.
Santner, the Black Caps’ No 1 spinner for the World Cup, also gets his chance with defending champions Chennai Super Kings, coached by Stephen Fleming and featuring Indian cricket megastar MS Dhoni, after a knee injury ruled him out of last year’s tournament.
Former Black Caps coach Mike Hesson also makes his IPL coaching debut with Kings XI Punjab, the only side not to have a New Zealander on their playing roster.
Last year Williamson’s Sunrisers Hyderabad were beaten by Chennai in the final and the Black Caps skipper had a brilliant tournament, topping the run charts with 735 at a strike rate of 142.
Boult’s Delhi Daredevils (now known as the Capitals) finished last under coach Ricky Ponting but the New Zealand strike bowler was equal fifth on the wicket-taking charts with 18 in 14 matches.
As the IPL rumbles into gear, Black Caps World Cup frontliners Tom Latham, Henry Nicholls, Jimmy Neesham, Matt Henry, other squad members and standby players will have camps under the marquee at the High Performance Centre at Lincoln on April 15-16, April 23-24 and April 30-May 1.
Then follows three 50-over warmup matches against a fullstrength Australian XI at Brisbane’s Allan Border Field on May 5, 7 and 9.
New Zealand’s IPL players will be absent while Australia are expected to be at full strength, including Steve Smith and David Warner returning from their bans for the ball tampering saga.
Black Caps coach Gary Stead will simply hope his stars get regular IPL game time, build some form and confidence and, most importantly, avoid injury before reassembling for the big show in mid-May.