It's a bit like the Phoney War in 1939 after the negotiating process was over-ridden yesterday.

The man in the street has been bemused with the breakdown, as he has been since the whole thing became public on October 1 when New Zealand's players withdrew their services.

Most are walking around with telephone numbers in their heads wondering about what individual players may be offered to turn out for the country as opposed to those who couldn't accept the old telephone numbers that went out of date yesterday.

The Council of Trade Unions (CTU) got in on the act early in the day with a ramrod-stiff email delivery, courtesy of the Players' Association, offering support to the players, as you would expect.

A bit discourteous of the players though not to point out to the CTU that the "Cricket Council" they kept referring to in their press release hadn't been in existence since 1995.

Tim May, the off-spinning Australian who is the Australian Players' boss and joint international Players' chief, was also available to anyone who wanted to communicate with him from his office at the Australian Cricket Board headquarters. It was a pity he hadn't been available when earlier efforts were made to contact him.

The former chief executive of New Zealand Cricket, Christopher Doig took issue with some of the claims made by Players' Association executive member Dion Nash at the press conference yesterday.

Talkback radio has feasted on this off-season entertainment, naturally, but all can be expected to quieten down a little as the prospect of taking on England in rugby at the weekend.

Meanwhile, Fortress Hereford, the HQ for New Zealand Cricket in Hereford Street, Christchurch, was relatively quiet. Long and meaningful discussions were obviously going on given the unavailability of key personnel. This situation was repeated at Major Association HQs around the country.

Jeff Wilson's lawyer David Howman reported that Wilson was 'aghast' at the prospect of playing Test cricket if called into action against India and intimated he would take advice if he was asked to play.

Under the heading 'Flannelled Fools', The Press editorialised on the players' strike:

"New Zealand's top cricketers should have been in no doubt that their bluff would be called. New Zealand Cricket issued a clear ultimatum for its final enhanced pay offer to be accepted yesterday or the stumps would be pulled on their season. Instead, the players' hired guns in the Cricket Players' Association attempted equivocation. NZC's chief executive Martin Snedden rightly took the view that an ultimatum is an ultimatum, says The Press in an editorial.

"Cricket fans, still mystified how the players justified their 60 per cent pay claim, might despair for the coming season, but will accept that the time for talking was over.

"The CPA called for further negotiations under mediation with the carrot of an immediate return to work. This was an unacceptable response to the deadline. Mediation had been tried and failed and NZC had stressed that its pay offer would not rise. The impression is that the CPA was desperately trying to win back a vestige of the public support alienated by the unreasonable pay demand," it said.

The Press concluded its comments:

"New Zealand may well be forced to field a baby Black Cap team against India, assuming the Indian players' association does not boycott the tour. The hope will be that the exercise is as successful as rugby's Baby Blacks - who were needed because of a wildcat tour of South Africa by leading players. Regardless of the result, those players unavailable because of industrial action already have their scorebook entry - run out without facing a ball by their own union and their inflated salary expectations."

The issue has hit the Richter Scale in India. According to the Times of India, the Indian Cricket Board secretary, Karuna-karan Nair, said the tour was still on, with a month to go, although India would like to play against the strongest team.

It's worth remembering that India were going to send a second-string side to the ICC Champions Trophy until their sponsorship issue was resolved, so they should have a measure of sympathy for NZC.

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