Other than the big name movements of Neil Wagner, Colin de Grandhomme and Jimmy Neesham, the 2018/19 domestic cricket contracts lists were a tad underwhelming. This is partly due to my own cricketing epiphany, revolving around both the Blackcaps and domestic cricket contracts where I'm now, not overly fussed by who wins contracts and who doesn't.

Regardless of whether you have a Blackcaps or domestic contract, you can still play plenty of cricket in either arena. Sure, contracts point to who is in favour with the Blackcaps and the domestic clubs, yet even that is fluid and someone like Tim Johnston for Canterbury who missed out on a contract could still be Canterbury's best spinner this coming season.

These contracts are important to the players because they get the guaranteed income, which in our little slice of the world where most domestic athletes are semi-pro or pro for a period of the year, is crucial. These lists are also important because they serve as transfer lists, allowing us to suss out which players have moved clubs and then I can try to offer reasons why that may have been the case, plus how their move will impact the team they left and their new team.

I went hard on the moves of Wagner and de Grandhomme to Northern Districts, so peep that and they are both contracted with the Blackcaps so neither appears in the domestic contracts.

I've also written specifically about Neesham's move to Wellington, other than that, there is little to no movement between the domestic teams and that's kinda amazing. There are of course fresh faces who have won contracts and I'll run through those in more detail when I do my previews for each domestic club; highlights are Willem Luddick (Stags), Finn Allan (Aces), Peter Bocock (Knights) and Rachin Ravindra (Firebirds).

Auckland's signing of Will Somerville is perhaps the funkiest non-Neesham move of the winter and Somerville is likely to act as Auckland's premier spinner. Neither Tarun Nethula nor Aniket Parikh got contracts, which again, doesn't mean a whole lot but as Somerville has been playing domestic cricket in Australia for New South Wales, he's already a better option across the different formats than Nethula (good with white ball) and Parikh (young).

Cricket NSW caught up with potential Sheffield Shield debutant Will Somerville from the Sydney Uni Cricket club ahead of his potential debut.

Somerville was born in Aotearoa and played a game for Otago back in 2005, then he moved to Sydney and after battling away in the Sydney club scene he managed to crack the NSW team, winning a NSW contract and then sliding into some Big Bash League cricket for Sydney Sixers.

That game Somerville played for Otago, vs Wellington featured glorious domestic cricket names; Mathew Bell, Chris Nevin, Gareth Hopkins, Chris Gaffaney, Aaron Redmond and the Parlane brother. Guess who top-scored though? Jesse Ryder with a first innings 81 and Ryder was dismissed caught-behind off Somerville's bowling.

Snaring Somerville is a nice signing for Auckland as they also welcome back Mitchell McClenaghan into their contract list, thus adding some experience to a young bowling group and young team in general. McClenaghan is of course another example of how the contracts don't mean that much as he gave up his contracts last summer to be open for T20 cricket around the world, but still played a fair amount of cricket for Auckland.

Obviously the T20 opportunities that McClenaghan was banking on have dried up, or not quite worked out as he had hoped. McClenaghan was solid in BBL last summer (11w @ 32.81avg/9.17rpo for Sydney Thunder) and while he initially went unsold at the IPL auction, he came in as an injury replacement and did a nice job for Mumbai Indians (14w @ 23.71avg/8.30rpo). Not terrible numbers in the best T20 competitions, but McClenaghan's BBL probably wasn't good enough to demand another crack and now that he has an Aces contract, it's highly unlikely he won't feature in this summer's BBL.

If a BBL team does want McClenaghan, then things get niggly as the Aces have to agree to release McClenaghan. Not having a domestic contract in Aotearoa would allow the player, McClenaghan in this case to make BBL cricket his priority and then chime in with the Aces when his schedule allows.

That's exactly what Anton Devcich is now doing.

As I am fascinated by this situation regarding players wanting to play BBL, but being shackled by NZC due to NZC's fantasy that the Super Smash is on par with BBL and NZC's desire to flood the summer with T20 Internationals at the same time as BBL, Devcich not taking a domestic contract is the funkiest aspect of the domestic contracts.

Anton Devcich casually plucks a stunner out of the air like he was off on a Sunday stroll, unbelievable Subscribe to CPL: http://bit.ly/1EDb4ZH https://www.facebook.com/CarnivalT20 https://twitter.com/CPL http://instagram.com/cplt20/ The 2016 Hero Caribbean Premier League - the biggest party in sport!

And all power to Devcich. It's my belief that NZC are holding Aotearoa's best cricketers back from playing BBL, maybe not intentionally but more so because NZC are kinda silly. Devcich is a proven T20 performer in Aotearoa and various T20 competitions around the world, by giving up his contract with Northern Districts/NZC, Devcich is taking control of his situation.

This opens up the door to BBL for Devcich as well as the full smorgasbord of T20 competitions. The reason I love this move is because Devcich doesn't have a whole lot to lose as he's made himself available for the T20 competitions, but can still play all formats for the Knights when he's available. If Devcich plays for the Knights, he gets match payments from the Knights for that game.

I'm fascinated because it's a simple move that other cricketers like Devcich and McClenaghan, will make in the future and there will only be more as players realise that they have the real power. Obviously needs to A) be good enough to be confident of domestic selection when available in Aotearoa and B) be good enough to have a sniff of T20 interest; Devcich would likely waltz in a Knights 1st 11 in any format and is already a T20 traveler.

As long as NZC continue with their status-quo and the BBL continues to grow in popularity, the number of players in this situation will only increase. Now we are seeing the crumbs and these crumbs (assuming nothing changes) will lead to the feast, the feast of player power and perhaps problems for NZC.

For now, we wait to see if Devcich gets a BBL opportunity. Even if he doesn't, he's still got a few T20 gigs and the safety net of domestic cricket in Aotearoa.

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