Daniel Vettori's captaincy career may come to be defined by how the the Indian Premier League/England tour issue is handled.
New Zealand have an interesting few months ahead of them, notably with the tour of England, which clashes with the IPL late next month.
This is a great opportunity for Vettori to think long term, be strategic and if I was him I would be quick to get out in front of this one, because the payoff is huge.
At issue is about US$300,000 of lost earnings if he makes the call to be on tour with the BlackCaps in England from day one.
In the overall scheme of things this is small bananas for Dan. He will make at least $1m per annum for each of the next two years and I would imagine he will then sign for a further three as well.
As it is, he will pick up about $300,000 for the couple of weeks that he will be on IPL duty and although the temptation is to push hard for as much as he can, the smart money is on taking the high ground and doing what he knows is right _ getting together with New Zealand Cricket chief executive Justin Vaughan and ensuring that he leads from the front in getting all the New Zealand squad on tour from the start.
If Vettori commits, the others will gladly follow him. He will have stamped his mark on his team and the era of big money cricket.
He will be lauded in the media and by the public and as a result if his captaincy comes under pressure he will have plenty of slack to play with.
Conversely if he doesn't lead this issue it could go badly wrong for him very quickly. Allowing his side to begin their tour of England without the five best players is a huge risk.
If things go poorly in the subsequent test series, Vettori will be in a position from which his captaincy may never recover.
Is it worth the risk? From a purely business perspective this should be the easiest decision he has ever made- but temptation is a powerful thing.
break
With the Indian Cricket League under way, it look like being a reasonably tight race for the semifinals.
Both the new sides, Lahore and Ahmedabad, look good units and both began with first-up wins against last year's finalists.
My Chennai team, who are defending champions, should have beaten Lahore, although to be fair they played pretty well.
In terms of a spectacle it was right up there with quality batting from former internationals Michael Bevan and Inzamamam-ul-Haq, and various cameos around them.
My old mate Saqlain Mushtaq, not content with inventing the doosra a few years back has been at it again, this time pioneering what appears to be an off spinning version of the Flipper.
Essentially it comes out of the front of his hand and does its best to roll along the ground all the while looking like an off break. It is not the easiest thing in the world to try and hit out of the ground.
Spectator support has been strong with the ground mostly full.
In the last few days massive billboards have begun to spring up all over the city and the quality of the television production in regard to graphics is state of the art, certainly far more advanced and a lot slicker than Super 14 or ODI coverage at home.
Bollywood movie stars are big business over here and the latest news has a number of local superstars in talks with the ICL with regards ownership of their local teams.
Certainly with the success of the IPL franchise structure, if the ICL decided to sell off their teams via a franchise model they would have little trouble unloading them at a considerable profit.
Interestingly the BCCIs success is actually helping ICL gain a foothold. In recent years new stadiums have sprung up as Indian cricket has invested in its infrastructure allowing the ICL to snap up a number of venues previously used for international matches.
From what I have seen there is no shortage of stadiums across India now looking for a long term tenant and ICL certainly fits the bill.
In my view, the IPL is a bigger threat to the world game, with players keen to play as many games as possible at the expense of their international obligations

I have to confess to being blown away by the progress India has made in the 5 or so years since I was last here. The country has come along at a rate that is hardly believable and to be honest is not too much different to being anywhere else in the world. The hotels are genuinely 5 star and the usual everyday things we take for granted are all now available- internet speeds are good, mobiles are something which have been embraced and the networks are excellent and cheap. None of the dropping out issues that are common place in NZ. Satelite TV is everywhere and the housing boom is in full swing- in fact the developments that are advertised litterally everywhere are very similar architectually to those that sprung up all over NZ during our own housing boom. Business wise its all about cricket- all of the major corporates have aligned themselves with either the game or its players and the games hold on the mases in undisputed. The IPL franchises are beginning to hold press conferences to unveil their logos and these are featured live on at least 5 or 6 networks as breaking news! Honestly I've never seen anything like it. The ICL is now well underway and my experience to date is that it is well resourced and organised and the future it aspires to is quite visionary. I expect that within 6 months each of the franchise teams will have secured home stadiums (this tournament is played at 3 venues) and that new teams will have joined. The Lahore side will be based in Pakistan and a team from the West Indies is widely talked about at present. Future tournaments will also likely be played in venues such as the US and Dubai giving it a truely global focus. Broadcast rights are owned by Zee and at present are showing all over Asia, Africa and the Americas on both subscription based and free to air channels. There is plenty of advertsiing support in evidence and the standard of games is high due in large part to the quality of the internationals on display. Bondy debuted last night with a spell of fast bowling that looked to be 145kmph + and his attitude is typical of those of us who have come to play- we want to win and do well personally both on and off the field and a big part of that is getting the most out of the local players who make up the bulk of our sides. Personally I have been surprised at how much I have to offer- its easy to forget the sheer quantum of experience and routines built up over 15 years which you take for granted but which can make a huge difference to other players games. Its a shame that in recent years most of that experience has been lost to New Zealand Cricket as my generation has quietly faded away from the game in NZ and been lost. To watch Cairns, Astle, Bond and others at work over the past few days marshalling their sides and performing at the same level as they always have suggests that if NZC can get a program together to keep its experienced players involved in and around the BlackCaps unit in the years to come there will be significant upside for the game in NZ.   

The Twenty/20 format of the tournament is something we are all getting to grips with- as yet there is no clear pattern of how best to play it although a number of themes are becoming obvious. The 7pm start makes for a long day and at this stage most of the sides appear reasonably well matched. My Chennai franchise has the best group of local players that I have seen and our strategy is built around developing these guys over the next few years.

Business wise my daily routine hasn't changed too much although I have skipped out of having to drop the kids off at school. My mornings are spent on emails with franchisees and on the phone as per usual. Because of the demands of a young family I specifically designed our systems and processes to be remote so that I could continue to run the businesses from home if my family commitments demanded it. As a result the fact that I am in India for a month is simply business as usual and the transition has been seemless. Most people don't even know that I am not in our Greenlane Head Office. The only noticable difference is that my internet speeds have increased significantly and my mobile calls are cheaper- go figure. It costs me about 20c a minute to call a NZ mobile from here. I'm starting to see why Telecom needed to be regulated.

An unexpected bonus has been getting to spend alot of time with Michael Bevan our Australian Master Franchisee. Bevo is very good strategically and between us we have identified a number of new initiatives and opportunites that will benefit both our NZ and Australian businesses.

Having not visited India for about six years,   it has come a long way. The change in the quality of the infrastructure and the general development of the country is astounding and testament to a power house economy that is   changing the way Indians live.
One thing that hasn't changed however is how much they love their cricket.
We think we love our rugby but these guys are on a completely different level. The game is everywhere.
News coverage of the Tri-Series win in Australia is at saturation point and the Indian Cricket League competition, where I will be playing for Chennai,   is serious business and similarly resourced.
The quality of both the international players and the young Indians is a pleasant surprise.
It reads like a who's who of international cricket: Brian Lara, Inzaman ul-Haq, Shane Bond, Michael Bevan, Mohammad Sami, Damien Martyn, Mustaq Ahmed the list goes on.
Our practice match against Lahore packed with current and former Pakistani test players was played at a standard not too far below ODI level.
The young Indian guys are phenomenally talented and two of our side have already played for India. The quality of the striking is at a level beyond anything seen in New Zealand and serves to enforce that with our wickets and conditions we are   never going to produce world class batsmen.
Throw in a full quota of support and coaching staff for each side and you have a set up that compares favourably to any sporting franchise.
From a player's perspective my brief is clear develop the young Indian players and pass on to them my experience both on and off the field.
The vision of ICL is a compelling one which all of the internationals have bought into. It's an opportunity for us to play in an elite environment with the best young talent available and to help them develop from 1st class to test quality.
 It is completely different from the Indian Premier League, in fact the only thing the two competitions have in common is that they both play Twenty20.
Both will most likely do very well. In India there is no such thing as too much cricket.  
The ICL  sides look reasonably evenly matched although   Lahore with its full quota of internationals probably has the strongest line up.  The fact that this tournament will be played in three stadiums in Hyderabad, Dehli and Chandigarh will mean a variety of wicket conditions and this along with the Twenty20 format should keep things interesting right through to the finals.