Five Otago Volts players will be in contention to get picked up by IPL franchises next season after good performances in the Champions League T20 tournament in India, according to New Zealand coach Mike Hesson.
According to Stuff.co.nz, Hesson and the New Zealand test squad watched Otago bow out of the tournament on net run rate yesterday at their Bangladesh hotel, when Mumbai toppled Perth to clinch the last semifinal spot.
It saved Hesson some angst, as his captain Brendon McCullum, Hamish Rutherford and Neil Wagner will now get some valuable time in the three-day warm-up match in Chittagong, starting tonight, the report said.
Hesson was confident Rutherford, Jimmy Neesham, Ian Butler and possibly century-maker Neil Broom would join the McCullum brothers as IPL signings for next year's tournament, the report added.
Hesson said Neesham had performed well in T20 for a while and was a powerful ball striker, along with being able to bowl at 140 kmh.