McCullum is one of nine New Zealand players taking part in the IPL

Image courtesy of: Zimbio

Numerous New Zealand players, including captain Brendon McCullum, are set to miss the start of the national team’s tour of England in May due to the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Along with McCullum, some of the other New Zealand players involved in the IPL are Kane Williamson, Trent Boult, Tim Southee and Corey Anderson.

Since the IPL finishes on May 24 and New Zealand’s first Test against England is set to begin on May 21, New Zealand Cricket (NZC) has made it clear that all members of the Test squad have to be in England by May 19.

However, all the New Zealand players participating in the IPL will only have two days of preparation and no match practice prior to the start of the Test series since they will miss the four-day warm-up matches against Somerset and Worcestershire.

“Clearly it is not ideal preparation for us,” Lindsay Crocker, NZC’s head of cricket, told the Dominion Post. “But the bottom line is some of our players have the chance to participate in the IPL and in order to be picked up we had to allow them a playing window. If we had truncated that it would have reduced their marketability.

“They can earn money in the IPL that we can’t contemplate paying them. But it was important to us, and important to them, that they don’t miss any internationals so we came up with an arrangement that they were all back in time to play in the first Test.”

NZC are also hoping that the IPL franchises will release some of the players early if their services are no longer required.

“The make-up of our team for the warm-up matches will be a combination of Test squad players, IPL players out early and players in England with other responsibilities, be that county cricket or league cricket,” Crocker said.