IPL poses danger to New Zealand cricket: Cairns

Wellington, Mar 6 (UNI) Former kiwi all-rounder Chris Cairns today warned that New Zealand cricket is facing mass exodus of players to the Indian Cricket League (ICL) due to the fabulous wages offered by the rebel Twenty20 competition.

''New Zealand is going to be susceptible to that because of our pay structure,'' Cairns told Bigstarcricket.com.

''If there was a 10 per cent discrepancy or even 20 per cent discrepancy between what you could earn playing over in India against your yearly wage (in New Zealand) then players would consider staying,'' he added. ''But when you are talking a 200 per cent difference, no person in their right mind could turn that down - that's the reality.'' The 37-year-old called upon the International Cricket Council (ICC) to create a window in the international calendar for the ICL and the Indian Premier League (IPL), besides revoking the bans on players joining the ICL.

''The ICC are going to have to fix this - it is not a New Zealand Cricket issue, it's an ICC issue. I just hope that they create a window for players to be able to do it (play ICL and not be banned) - ICL and IPL,'' Cairns said. ''West Indies will have this problem too, any country in fact where players are not that well remunerated.

''You have Australia, India and England earning well but even then how long can someone like Kevin Pietersen turn down 600,000 pounds for 40 days' work? These are the dilemmas that are going to start to happen, though we might not see it for a year's time until everybody comes off contract with their national boards.'' New Zealand have been hit hard by the ICL, with players like Craig McMillan, Shane Bond and Lou Vincent joining joining the league along with Cairns, who had already retired from international cricket.

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