were considering multi-year contracts<\/a> from leagues in Australia, South Africa and the UAE. <\/p>\nSigning those deals would mean having to opt out of NZC central contracts, and leave players as T20 freelancers with no guarantees over national selection.<\/p>\n
The trickle-down effect of that would be a reduced level of quality for the domestic product in New Zealand, which would potentially flow on to national teams. <\/p>\n
\u201c[Striking] is pretty excessive, considering the position it\u2019s at,\u201d Ferguson said. \u201cMore worrying than a strike is players going overseas for other leagues, rather than harnessing that talent and giving an opportunity for our cricketers to do something in New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Lockie]()
Lockie Ferguson (centre) warns not having any kind of local competition could force New Zealand\u2019s best players abroad. Photo \/ Photosport <\/p>\n
\u201cIf that doesn\u2019t happen, we\u2019re going to lose a lot of players to the franchise world,\u201d Ravindra also warned. \u201cThat\u2019s not what we want as a playing group, or for the nation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Should the NZC board vote in favour of NZ20 it would also give New Zealand\u2019s women a significant opportunity to ply their trade at home.<\/p>\n
While the franchise world is full of countless opportunities for men, the women\u2019s game offers fewer chances.<\/p>\n
At present, franchise leagues in India, Australia, England and the West Indies are open for overseas players, while the Women\u2019s Bangladesh Premier League will launch next month.<\/p>\n
Of the White Ferns\u2019 playing stocks, captain Amelia Kerr and Sophie Devine are constant fixtures across tournaments, while their compatriots are often overlooked.<\/p>\n
While the NZ20 versus BBL decision remains a \u201cthis or that\u201d for the men, Bates, who has played in franchise cricket in Australia, the West Indies and England, said there was room for both in the women\u2019s game, given the windows in which the competitions are played.<\/p>\n
However, the number of opportunities available to young players through any kind of local tournament should be prioritised, she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to have a pathway women\u2019s competition that attracts players from overseas, and our best players playing in.<\/p>\n
\u201cFranchise cricket is great, it pays well and has commercial sponsors. But for me, it\u2019s about the pathway, and having a sustainable competition that we\u2019ve had with the Super Smash. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe need our own competition to build the pathway for young females to look up to. In Otago, having the Sparks playing Super Smash, a young girl who\u2019s 14 sees them as role models.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019d lose that by taking it to Australia. But if that\u2019s in addition to a pathway programme here, that\u2019s ideal.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Herald understands the NZ20 proposal would involve a women\u2019s competition operating earlier in the summer, while the men\u2019s contest would be held in January.<\/p>\n
Alex Powell<\/a> is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"And while strike action is not what the players want, some of New Zealand\u2019s highest-profile stars will not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[182015,8834,7022,42574,16558,31787,14736,545,10541,3273,14731,111,139,69,98789,1523,10702,5843,213,4485,67648,9640,16550,1533,6730],"class_list":["post-340543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-bash","tag-big","tag-black","tag-caps","tag-cricket","tag-doing","tag-domestic","tag-extreme","tag-ferns","tag-future","tag-league","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-nz20","tag-over","tag-players","tag-senior","tag-sports","tag-strike","tag-t20","tag-table","tag-white","tag-will","tag-would"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}