Hundreds of thousands of dollars are owed to New Zealand cricketers by the two Indian Premier League franchises at the centre of a corruption scandal.
The Chennai Super Kings and the Rajasthan Royals are on the verge of being suspended following an inquiry into a betting scandal involving the clubs owners.
The Black Caps captain Brendon McCullum and Matt Henry play for Chennai, which is coached by former New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming, while pace bowler Tim Southee plays for Rajasthan.
Brendon McCullum is owed money by the Chennai Super Kings. Photo: Chennai Super Kings
New Zealand Cricket players association chief executive Heath Mills says the player payments are made quarterly but the latest payment has been received.
The trio were signed at the IPL auctions last year. McCullum's contract was worth up to $627,000, Henry $58,000 and Southee $230,000.
"Quite often the payments are late so that in itself is not something the players or us as an organisation would worry about," Mills said.
"What we would worry about is the payment not being made at all so we need to make sure if these franchises are taken away from the current owners that the responsibility for the IPL player payment contract payments goes with them."
Mills said if the payments hadn't been made within a couple of months he would be deeply concerned.
Mills has been in contact with McCullum, Henry and Southee and the Federation of International Cricket Players Assocation is acting on behalf of all the players involved.
He said the possible scenarios for the Chennai and Rajasthan franchises included the teams being sold and the new owners picking up the current player contracts.
Another possibility is for two new teams to be formed and the players then returning to the player pool and having to go through the auction process again.