Contracts, IPL and McCullum exploiting loopholes

[DIRK-NANNES]

McCullum jeopardises Flintoff's IPL future - Cricket - Sport - smh.com.au
McCullum did not try to refuse contract - Vaughan | New Zealand Cricket News | Cricinfo.com

IPL commissioner Lalit Modi has revealed to the Herald that "a loophole" in the system that Kiwi McCullum tried to exploit had been shut down during a meeting on September 2.

"McCullum was trying to become a free agent [threatening not to sign a New Zealand Cricket Board central contract], he wanted to play in the entire IPL and there was a loophole there, but that loophole was closed during our meeting on September 2 when we introduced a new amendment for players who don't have a national contract," Modi said.

"The new amendment reads that international players need NOCs from their home boards 'for two years post-retirement/not in contract'," Modi was quoted as saying. "We want to ensure people continue to play for their countries. Nobody is going to budge on the NOC issue, it was designed so players do not try to become free agents.

FFS, Baz needs a swift kick up the backside ASAP.
His form is crap anyway, should drop him so he can wallow in this BS he's created for himself.

Anyway, good to see Modi is doing something positive on the whole 'representing your country' front. Wish those spineless fools at the ICC would get their act together though and help strengthen international cricket.

[Days of Grace]

McCullum has played IPL for two years now. You'd think he would have saved almost a million dollars by now. Isn't that enough?

[four_or_six]

Has any player been denied a NOC yet? I don't remember any high profile cases, so until there are I'm not sure whether it's actually something that would work. I'm not sure it's the sort of thing that would hold up in a European court for example, if applied to an English player. Surely it's restraint of trade?

[Hurricane]

McCullum was quoted in the paper today saying that eventually he signed for New Zealand in part because he wants to become captain one day.
Lets hope he can pick up his play in tests and ODIs to actually warrant captaincy consideration.

I figure Dan has another 6 or 7 years to go hopefully can't see why a spinner wouldn't play till he is 36.

McCullum has a lot of waiting to do.

[slugger]

icc is much to blame for this as an individual player trying to become a freelancer, this best thing for all parties, icc, ipl, and individual players, is that the icc grant ipl a window in the ftp.

[Zinzan]

From the said article....

"McCullum was trying to become a free agent [threatening not to sign a New Zealand Cricket Board central contract], he wanted to play in the entire IPL and there was a loophole there, but that loophole was closed during our meeting on September 2 when we introduced a new amendment for players who don't have a national contract," Modi said.

In other words, McCullum would have played IPL ahead of his Country had Modi, through his affiliation with both the IPL & the BCCI not taken this stance

[four_or_six]

From the said article....

"McCullum was trying to become a free agent [threatening not to sign a New Zealand Cricket Board central contract], he wanted to play in the entire IPL and there was a loophole there, but that loophole was closed during our meeting on September 2 when we introduced a new amendment for players who don't have a national contract," Modi said.

In other words, McCullum would have played IPL ahead of his Country had Modi, through his affiliation with both the IPL & the BCCI not taken this stance

Depends who you believe tbh...

Justin Vaughan, the New Zealand Cricket chief executive, has denied reports that Brendon McCullum tried to refuse his central contract in order to play the whole of the IPL in 2010 as a free agent. The denial follows comments by Lalit Modi, the IPL commissioner, in the Sydney Morning Herald that specifically mentioned McCullum wanting a change in his playing status.

Vaughan said there was no question of McCullum refusing his New Zealand contract and said that he, along with captain Daniel Vettori, Jacob Oram, Ross Taylor and Jesse Ryder, had just been given more time to sign. "There were never any discussions along the lines of refusing his contract," Vaughan told the New Zealand Herald. "That was never a possibility and, as far as I was aware, there was never any exploration of loopholes.

[Athlai]

Justin Vaughan > Modi

[silentstriker]

They did change the rule on the 4th and gave McCullum as the reason. My guess is that he threatened to do something, it got overblown, IPL got scared and amended the rule, and Vaughan is protecting his player (now in good graces again).

[Polo23]

McCullum was quoted in the paper today saying that eventually he signed for New Zealand in part because he wants to become captain one day.
Lets hope he can pick up his play in tests and ODIs to actually warrant captaincy consideration.

I figure Dan has another 6 or 7 years to go hopefully can't see why a spinner wouldn't play till he is 36.

McCullum has a lot of waiting to do.

Vettori has said he doesn't want to be in the job for too long. I think he said he'll give it up after the next WC, regardless of if he's still playing or not.

[BoyBrumby]

TBH only Vaughan really has a vested interest in keeping McCullum onside. Can't see any reason for Modi to have mentioned him by name unless there was a grain of truth in it. Doesn't necessarily mean Vaughan's being economical with l'actualité, of course, just means it's possibly more likely.

[Prince EWS]

Whether McCullum tried to decline a national contract to exploit this loophole or not, I really do think it's great to see that not only are the NOC rules pretty strong, but that the BCCI is still going to the effort of strengthening them when necessary. For all the talk about how Test cricket is in danger of being snubbed by playing to play IPL, it's still not actually possible without board approval, something I don't think would be forthcoming in normal circumstances.

[four_or_six]

Can anyone confirm if the NOC thing would actually work in England? I'm wondering about European law, it sounds like restraint of trade to stop someone who isn't contracted to you from playing for someone else.

[BoyBrumby]

Whether McCullum tried to decline a national contract to exploit this loophole or not, I really do think it's great to see that not only are the NOC rules pretty strong, but that the BCCI is still going to the effort of strengthening them when necessary. For all the talk about how Test cricket is in danger of being snubbed by playing to play IPL, it's still not actually possible without board approval, something I don't think would be forthcoming in normal circumstances.

Indeed so. Full credit to the BCCI on this.

As four_or_six says, I'm not sure if such a restriction would withstand a legal challenge, but the BCCI are definitely doing right by test cricket.

If common sense prevails and a 4-5 week window is made for the IPL a lot of problems could be solved at a stroke. As Uppercut's thread suggested, May tests are hardly universally beloved in England anyway.

[Prince EWS]

Can anyone confirm if the NOC thing would actually work in England? I'm wondering about European law, it sounds like restraint of trade to stop someone who isn't contracted to you from playing for someone else.

I actually don't think it'd be an English/EU issue. While, in reality, it'd be the ECB's call on whether or not a player could play IPL cricket, it'd technically be the BCCI preventing said player from playing.