Finn Allen is one of the players who turned down a national contract this season to pursue other playing opportunities. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES
It is a difficult subject.
No-one appears to want to get on the wrong side of the New Zealand Cricket Players Association by pointing out any of its flaws.
But there are conversations taking place, just not in public. And there seems to be some consensus around a need for change.
A quick refresher: Kane Williamson, Devon Conway, Lockie Ferguson, Finn Allen and Adam Milne all turned down national contracts this season to pursue other playing opportunities.
To be eligible for a national contract, you have to be available for the Super Smash, which clashes with other, more lucrative T20 tournaments. That is why players opt not to accept a national contract.
Williamson and Conway did sign casual playing contracts. That was a pragmatic concession by New Zealand Cricket.
The agreement kept them on the books but freed them up to play in South Africa’s premier T20 league.
It is an example of how they can be flexible, and they will have to stay agile if they are going to prevent the trickle from becoming a torrent.
Ferguson, Allen and Milne are not the first to embrace freelancing. Mitchell McClenaghan and Colin Munro were early pioneers in that sense. In Munro’s case, it cost him a spot in the New Zealand T20 side.
Jimmy Neesham declined a national contract after he was initially overlooked in 2022.
Trent Boult was granted an early release from his contract that year after a long and successful international career.
Not many begrudged him for cashing in to play franchise T20 cricket. But it ended his test career and that was a loss for the international game. And the international game has been stacking up the losses.
Most national cricket associations cannot hope to compete with the financial rewards on offer in franchise cricket.
It used to be just the Indian IPL that threatened the integrity of international cricket. But those franchises have expanded their reach and are asserting more demands on their players.
You could argue international cricket has effectively become a feeder competition. And the Black Caps are being cannibalised by their success. The better they perform, the more demand there is for their players.
The national contracting system is far from a sturdy bulwark.
One source suggested it was time to ditch the staggered retainers and introduce contracts that reward the best players and recognise that it is T20 generating the revenue.
Currently, test cricket carries a greater weighting than the other two formats when ranking the players for national contracts. And someone who plays all three formats will naturally get a higher ranking than a T20 specialist, for example.
That player may look at his modest contract offer and decide they can do much better on the T20 market.
Arguably, that is exactly the calculation Allen made.
New Zealand Cricket needs to take action to make sure the best players are playing international cricket.
The only real mechanism it has to retain talent is through the contracting system, which is starting to fail.
They have recognised the shortcomings by introducing casual contracts.
Time will tell whether that will be enough.
The worry is the next tier of players will start to see less value in national, or even domestic contracts, and head overseas.
It would be handy if the ICC took the lead for a change. But as long as it works for India, England and Australia, it does not seem to care.
