Llorne Howell - Sports blogger Former cricket international for the Black Caps, Llorne Howell, gives his views on New Zealand's number one summer sport, both for the Bay and the national team.

There are ongoing battles between NZ Cricket and the NZ Cricket Players Association. The players association want to increase the percentage they receive from NZ Cricket revenue.

I looked at the figures quoted in the Herald for our players. They are quite misleading as our cricketers receive two streams of income. The Herald only referred to the contract payment the players receive. The contract payment ensures the player is available for the entire year.

The second stream of income is match payments. A top Black Cap would receive an annual contract of $160k-$180k. This makes him available to NZ for the full year and not to Bangalore or Middlesex unless released by NZC. Then he is paid to play. If he played most matches during the year he would add $120k-$150k to the contract figure.

Deciding who is ranked the highest in the player list is a big deal. If you are ranked No 1 you will get the No 1 contract of around $180k. Ranked No 20 and you get about $70k. That is before match payments.

The rankings are a combination of points given from the test, one day and 20-20 games.

Mark Richardson always used to complain that since he played no one day cricket he got zero points from one day cricket towards his ranking with NZC. It was impossible for him to get a NZC ranking above 10 which meant he was on a lower sized contract. We play less test matches than short forms of the game so his match payments were also lower. Maybe this was a reason he pulled out early. He had to do a lot of work to stay at the top in the test game, but earned less than half what other members of the team were receiving. The interesting question is 'who did more to win games for NZ?' - 'An opening bat who gets through the new ball against the best bowlers in the world, or a bit player in the middle order in one dayers?'

For specialists in any form this is a big issue but the bigger issue now is the desire of the players to be able to play where they like.

A top Black Cap may receive over $300k a year from NZC, but he can earn this in two weeks of the IPL (Bond). However, if the NZ team is on tour he must be available for NZ. If he misses two weeks of six in the IPL his income is simply reduced by one third - the amount of time he missed. For Bond that would have been about NZ$340,000 for two weeks.

So it is relatively simple to see the logic developing. A lot of money for short stints in T20 competitions against the hard slog of tours for NZ. Add to this that Indian owners of IPL sides have strongly indicated they want players for the entire tournament. They have realised team unity and direction is an imperative to winning the title.

In this year's IPL auction, players missed out simply as they had commitments to their national side. The owners wanted guys there who could train with the team and acclimatise fully to the wickets and conditions in India. Foreign coaches are the norm in the IPL and they are well aware of the need for a consistent team to win competitions at any level.

Also, English counties and Australian states are paying huge money for top players for their T20 competitions. The Aussie comp clashes with our season. Another reason for free agency?

So it will be an interesting battle in the next while. Players wanting more money to be fully or mostly available for NZ or they may simply may not sign a contract. NZC trying to provide for the entire sport in NZ while having the desire to have our best players available at all times.