All players offered New Zealand Cricket contracts have now signed despite a scheduling clash with next year's IPL.
Vettori and co make financial sacrifice to sign NZC deals
New Zealand Cricket chief executive Justin Vaughan has announced that all players offered NZC contracts have now signed despite a scheduling clash with next year's Indian Premier League.
The Indian Premier League has been brought forward next year due to the ICC World Twenty20, which will inevitably mean a clash with New Zealand's tour of Australia.
But while Daniel Vettori, Brendon McCullum, Kyle Mills, Jacob Oram, Jesse Ryder and Ross Taylor all have existing IPL contracts, they have agreed to turn down the financial rewards on offer in favour of representing their country.
Overlap
"The final dates for the Australian tour are still to be confirmed, but it is obvious that with the early commencement to the IPL in 2010 there will be a significant overlap," Vaughan said.
"However, all our players with IPL contracts who were offered a New Zealand Cricket contract have now signed. This is an admirable decision by each of these individuals and they should be applauded for it.
"By signing their contracts, they are sacrificing significant sums of money.
"Their decision helps to reinforce international cricket as the pinnacle of our sport, and clearly shows that representing New Zealand remains the biggest motivating factor for our leading players."
Vaughan stressed, though, that he would like the International Cricket Council to do all they can to prevent players such clashes.
"We appreciate this issue may recur again and the onus is on international cricket to proactively search for solutions so that players are not forced to make such difficult decisions in the future," he said.
Brent Arnel, Shane Bond, Neil Broom, Ian Butler, Grant Elliott, James Franklin, Daniel Flynn, Martin Guptill, Gareth Hopkins, Tim McIntosh, Chris Martin, Iain O'Brien, Jeetan Patel and Tim Southee also signed the NZC deals.
