WELLINGTON, Dec 30: Six former New Zealand internationals who played in the Indian Cricket League (ICL) this month have effectively been banned from playing for the national team again.

All-rounders Chris Cairns, Nathan Astle, Chris Harris and Craig McMillan, batsman Hamish Marshall and bowler Daryl Tuffey all played in the breakaway Twenty20 league, which is not sanctioned by the International Cricket Council.

“We have a preference that our selectors take into consideration the fact that that these guys have been playing in an unsanctioned competition, an event that isn’t in the best interests of New Zealand or world cricket, and that we’d rather that they didn’t play,” New Zealand Cricket (NZC) chief executive Justin Vaughan told the Sunday Star Times newspaper.

“I don’t think we can say that they’re ineligible for selection. We’d prefer to say that the selectors will be encouraged to consider other players.

“There’s an understanding that we don’t support the ICL and that we don’t want to give them unnecessary traction.”

The stance, however, is largely symbolic.

Harris (38), Cairns (37), Astle (36) and McMillan (31) have all retired from international cricket while Marshall and Tuffey had recently been consistently overlooked by selectors.

Marshall subsequently turned down a central contract with NZC to play in England while Tuffey was not offered a contract.

Vaughan had said earlier that non-contracted players who appeared in the ICL could still play domestic cricket.—Reuters