Latest news with #HeathMills
RNZ News
09-05-2025
- Sport
- RNZ News
New Zealand cricketers leave India as threat of war intensifies
Devon Conway (L) is one of the five players at the IPL in India. Photo: FAROOQ NAEEM New Zealand cricketers are leaving India after the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament was suspended due to escalating tension and the threat of war between India and Pakistan over the disputed region of Kashmir. The New Zealand Players Association told RNZ they will be on their way home on flights leaving India on Saturday. New Zealand has five players at the IPL currently: Devon Conway, Mitchell Santner, Trent Boult, Lockie Ferguson and BJ Jacobs. Pakistan and India have been clashing since India struck several areas that it described as "terrorist infrastructure" in Pakistan on Wednesday, in retaliation for a deadly attack on Hindu tourists in India-administered Kashmir last month. Pakistan dismissed Indian accusations that it was involved. Both countries have exchanged cross-border fire and shelling and sent drones and missiles into each other's airspace. The relationship between India and Pakistan has been fraught with tension since they gained independence from colonial Britain in 1947. The countries have fought three wars, two of them over the disputed region of Kashmir. Map showing disputed parts of the Kashmir region. Photo: AFP / JOHN SAEKI Chief executive of the New Zealand Cricket Players Association Heath Mills told RNZ: "All our players are booked on flights to come home to New Zealand today Indian time, so that's good from our perspective, and they're pleased about that." In a statement, NZ Cricket said all New Zealanders in the IPL had either left India or were in the process of leaving "as flights become available". It said New Zealand cricketers in the PSL - the Pakistan equivalent - including players, coaches, support staff and commentators had left Pakistan for Dubai, where games would be played. The men's New Zealand A team was in Bangladesh, but its schedule was unchanged. NZ Cricket said its current advice was the tour should go ahead, and it was continuing to monitor the security situation. Mills said he was not sure what might happen if Indian cricket authorities decided to postpone or suspend the competition further. "At the moment, we're just focused on the players getting home and then we'll just wait and see what the Indian Cricket Board wants to do. "The players are reading everything that we're all reading and obviously their friends and family are back home too, so it's been a really anxious time for the guys over the last three or four days and they just want to get home." - RNZ / Reuters Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
The Independent
27-03-2025
- Business
- The Independent
World Cricketers' Association calls for radical reform of ‘chaotic and confusing' schedule
The World Cricketers' Association has issued a stark warning about the future of international cricket, calling for defined windows in the calendar, fairer distribution of wealth and an overhaul of leadership. The global players' union has published a wide-ranging review, six months in the making, taking in the views of current and former professionals, administrators and commercial stakeholders. It concludes the increasing stranglehold of T20 franchise cricket is putting the "chaotic, inconsistent and confusing" international schedule "at genuine risk". It offers potential solutions, most strikingly throwing its weight behind a complete revamp of the current future tours programme, an unbalanced mechanism that dictates the bilateral obligations for each country and allows for huge disparities. The WCA calls for four distinct international windows each year, alongside divisional structures for all three formats, taking in promotion and relegation based on results and feeding into World Cup qualification. The new plans are proposed to take effect in men's cricket from 2028 and women's cricket in 2029 - when the existing FTPs expire. The intention is to allow the international arena "to co-exist with the growing T20 leagues rather than compete with them, thereby ensuring its future survival". Outside of the agreed blocks of time, the domestic circuit would be free "to continue to evolve and innovate". Paul Marsh, chair of the sub-committee who produced the report, said: "Whilst there are a number of positive trends in cricket, there is no doubt that global cricket is at an inflection point. "Many of the issues highlighted in the report are challenging, but they need to be discussed if we are to create a more sustainable future in more than just a few countries. "Creating a clearer global calendar and incorporating more consistency across formats along with greater competition integrity and context for international cricket, will benefit cricket and all of its stakeholders hugely." Other suggestions include a centralised fund of global growth and development fund to support elite crick et and a new revenue model to combat the current financial dominance of India, England and Australia. That is currently agreed by the International Cricket Council (ICC) - which is itself targeted in the document. The WCA argues the ICC must be modernised around principles of "shared ownership, independence, and representation reflective of the whole sport". WCA chair Heath Mills, a former New Zealand international, added: "This process has brought to light an almost game wide appetite for change and a need to address the significant issues with the game's global structure. "Whilst there is no silver bullet, the report defines the trends, and major issues facing the sport at global level, along with some recommended solutions, intended to be both aspirational and realistic."
