Crucket

So the little contract scare with the IPL players is history. They all signed their contracts and everything is as it should be.

I still have a few things to say about this issue, however, that I didn’t get to when the issue was still warm.

Firstly, let me point you to a post on Paul Holden’s Sideline Slogger. Holden takes issue with Jonathon Millmow’s  article that I linked to in my previous post. To oversimplify the positions of these two commentators, Millmow  thinks the IPL players are abandoning loyalty for their country for money and Holden thinks that sport is just a job.

Millmow is wrong. All the players signed their NZ Cricket contracts. Not one of them chose money over country.

But Holden is wrong too. Cricket is not just a job. If it was, then none of them would have signed their NZC contracts.

But even if it was just a job, we don’t have to just accept that players choosing to play IPL rather than international cricket is likely to become the way of things. Anyone in New Zealand who is more interested in test cricket than domestic Indian 20-20 can feel rightly pissed that money is threatening to drag players away, and we have a right to express that opinion. And we don’t have to respect the players for putting so much stake in their IPL salaries, particularly after they pocketed their full salaries for playing in last year’s tournament.

Obviously the players have the right to go play the IPL if they want to. We can’t stop them. But we don’t have to like it and we shouldn’t be expected to send these guys off with a friendly slap on the back. You are allowed to be disappointed in people who change jobs or take job opportunities when you want them to stay in their old jobs.

There is far too much respect given to money in this age and too much respect given to people who have it. And I’m offended by the suggestions that we should respect these players because of the huge amounts of money they have turned down, as if the contact with these enormous sums of money makes them better people.

Let me make it clear however that I am not complaining about the players. I respect highly that they chose to sign their NZC contracts and to make playing for New Zealand their priority. I don’t respect particularly that they agonised over the money, but they signed their contracts so I can’t fault them.

Now compare the players and their choice to forego the IPL cash with Bill English and his choice to rort the MP allowances scheme. (It is an extremely tenuous comparison I know, but it was English and his greed that got me angry with people with loads of money who want loads more of it and got me writing this post today. Even if the comparison is tenuous, both cases are about money and choices, with the cricket players making the right choice and English making the wrong choice.) Now think of how much you disrespect Bill English for his choice, even though he hasn’t broken any rules. How would you really feel if the players had chosen the money?