Warm-up in doubt over ICL stand-off

The Indian board's plan for six of its cricketers to turn out in New Zealand's domestic competition ahead of the Tests is in doubt with the New Zealand players' body saying it will not pull ICL players out of state squads to facilitate the games. On Friday, the board had withdrawn Sachin Tendulkar and Dinesh Karthik at the last minute from a charity match involving ICL player Hamish Marshall.

"There's no way we'd stand for that," New Zealand Cricket Players' Association chief Heath Mills was quoted as saying in the New Zealand Herald. "They're New Zealanders and they're perfectly entitled to play in a domestic league in their own country. We will not accept players being stood down because of the petty politics of another country."

Also, if the BCCI maintains its tough stance on the ICL it cannot allow its players to join teams that field players from the banned league - this includes Canterbury (Shane Bond and Chris Harris) and Auckland (Daryl Tuffey). Tuffey is the only one to have played the four-day State Championship so far this season.

Mills said he was asked by Justin Vaughan, the New Zealand Cricket chief executive, if he would agree to withdraw Marshall from the charity game so that the BCCI would let Tendulkar and Karthik play. "It's a fair enough question but I said 'absolutely not'. I fully understand the benefits of having Sachin play but Hamish is one of our members and that [withdrawing him] is just not on. But there was no pressure. Justin was entirely reasonable."

Accommodating the Indians in the other three teams will also be difficult since the rules allow only one overseas player per side. Even then, the Indians will be facing teams that include ICL players. Geoff Allott, the NZC manager, who will coordinate the allocation, said ICL was just one of the factors being considered. "[There is also] scheduling and the apportioning of players."