The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : ‘IPL offering worst professional contracts ever’

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Saturday, Oct 13, 2007
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‘IPL offering worst professional contracts ever’

Christchurch: New Zealand Cricket Players’ Association boss Heath Mills has slammed the Indian Premier League (IPL) contracts offered to Daniel Vettori and Scott Styris as “the worst contracts in professional sport” and advised them not to ink the deal.

“The contracts put in front of the players are the worst I’ve seen in professional sport. It is 112 pages long, it is a MoU (memorandum of understanding), and players around the world have been signing it and they have no idea what they are signing away,” Mills was quoted as saying by The Dominion Post.

“It does not stipulate the rights they are giving away to Indian cricket. I’m concerned our guys signing it will put them in breach of their New Zealand Cricket contracts as well but we (NZCPA) and New Zealand Cricket do not agree on that,” he said.

Considerable pressure

Mills claimed the pair was subjected to considerable pressure by the IPL and New Zealand Cricket to sign as otherwise the lucrative three-year offers would have been withdrawn.

Vettori and Styris were announced by the IPL as new signings earlier this week but Mills disclosed that only Styris had put pen to paper and that was also against his recommendation. “We recommended they didn’t sign the contract put in front of them and I’m not sure Daniel has signed,” Mills said.

Mills said Vettori was uncomfortable with a particular clause in the contract that stipulates that “the player is not allowed to play for any other team that may at any point of time qualify for the Champions League”.

The IPL is a domestic Twenty20 competition to be held in India in April next year, offering $3 million (NZ$4.26 million) in prize money.

The Champions League is an extension of that and the plan is for the top two teams from each of the four domestic competitions in Australia, South Africa, England and India to play in a football-style Champions Trophy tournament in October next year.

New Zealand Cricket supports the sanctioned tournaments — which are in direct competition to the outlawed rebel league in India — and they hope to get two New Zealand domestic teams into the Australian Twenty20 qualifying competition.

Vettori concerned

But Mills said NZC is overlooking the fact that if Vettori signs his current IPL contract then he would not be able to play for Northern Districts if they qualified for the Champions League. “I know Daniel is concerned about the contract put in front of him and is trying to get some late changes to it,” Mills said.

“Those guys were under pressure to sign otherwise the deal would be taken away and our advice to the players was ‘don’t sign the MoU’.

“I don’t think it is a very good contract at all. It is a 112 page document. Our contracts are 100 pages long and people are very aware of their obligations and restrictions.

“New Zealand Cricket endorsed and supported it (IPL) and encouraged players to join it but the contract could potentially put them in breach.” — PTI

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