T20 Franchise Cricket: Legendary batter Ricky Ponting feels that more international cricketers will follow New Zealand pacer Trent Boult and turn their back on national contracts in favour of domestic leagues, but opines that it could still be a positive move for all if handled well. Follow InsideSport.IN For Cricket Latest updates
Boult in a shocker, recently announced that he would not take up a central contract with New Zealand and opted to spend more time with his family and to participate in domestic T20 leagues worldwide. While this decision does not mean the end of Boult’s international career, NZ’s career has indicated that they will favour contracted players during squad selection in future.
T20 Franchise Cricket: Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting believes more players will follow Trent Boult in opting out of central contracts, says ‘It is inevitable now’
“I think it is inevitable now with the amount of T20 domestic tournaments that are popping up all around the world now. It is just getting harder and harder for these guys to maintain the full schedule of international cricket,” said Ponting during the latest episode of ICC Review.
“And for someone like Trent Boult, and no disrespect to New Zealand at all, but I am sure their national contracts are probably only reflective of maybe what he would make in one of these T20 domestic tournaments. He is coming towards the end of his career and he has got to think about his family and the financial side of the game now, probably more than ever,” he added.
Ponting is well aware of the money offered by domestic T20 Leagues to international players as he himself is currently head coach of Delhi Capitals in IPL and head of strategy with Hobart Hurricanes in Australia’s Big Bash League. (BBL)
The Australian expects the New Zealand pacer to be a hot commodity for domestic competitions worldwide.
“He is right on top of his game as well in all formats, so wherever he goes and chooses to play, if it is T20 stuff that he’s talking about, then he will be in very high demand. There is no doubt about it. With the Big Bash draft coming up, I reckon pretty much every franchise or every team in Australia would have been reaching out to Trent Boult to make sure that he got his name into that player draft because he would be in high demand,” Ponting said.
T20 Franchise Cricket: Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting believes more players will follow Trent Boult in opting out of central contracts, says ‘It is inevitable now’
“The West Indians, I think are probably the ones that started this years ago with their preference for the T20 game and their ability to make big money and other tournaments. I think we will read and hear more about this in the coming years,” he added.
The legendary Aussie batter thinks that both player and country can do well going ahead if further cases similar to Boult’s happen in future.
“I think it depends on how the national teams are going to handle a situation like this with Trent…he said that he feels that that could jeopardise how much he plays for New Zealand, but I do not think it will. He is too important to New Zealand and if he does not miss a lot of domestic cricket and he is still available for selection, as long as they manage that well and maybe just pick him in the series that, the bigger type of Test series that they play, then I think the that the national teams and the national selectors and the individual player can make it work to a certain degree,” he said.
“Trent will have to give up something or he would not have made the decision that he is made. But I think if it is handled well, then there’s no reason why they cannot both co-exist in a reasonable manner,” he added.
T20 Franchise Cricket: Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting believes more players will follow Trent Boult in opting out of central contracts, says ‘It is inevitable now’
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