It came like a Boult from the blue. Trent Boult, the prime New Zealand seamer has decided to relinquish his New Zealand contract so that he can be available for the various T20 leagues around the world. It essentially means that he will probably not be available to play for New Zealand if he is involved in a franchise league somewhere in the world. It will be huge loss for New Zealand if he decides to concentrate more on franchise cricket. From a wider perspective, another warning issued and this time from Boult.
New Zealand Cricket chief executive, David White has said that priority will be given to centrally contracted players when it comes to selection. This may have effectively ruled Boult out of international cricket.
“We’ve said to him and he knows that priority will be given to centrally contracted players and domestically contracted players. But we’ll decide on a case-by-case basis. He’s playing in the West Indies and of course he’s going to continue the tour and then we’ve got the T20 World Cup coming up in Australia and he’s a big part of our plans for that so I’ll imagine he’ll be selected for that as well. But post that, we’ll work through it.
However, he is unlikely to be not selected for the T20 World Cup. It is already upon us and New Zealand would have planned for the tournament with the availability of Boult.
Playing for the country was top priority
Gone are the days when an aspiring cricketer wanted to play for his country and play more than 100 tests. It was considered as an important milestone but not anymore. The mushrooming of T20 leagues around the world has placed the game in a very difficult position. There will be days when the best players will be battling in a T20 league whereas their national teams will be involved in a bi-lateral series. There will also be a time when the cricketers will consider only the T20 World Cup and ODI World Cup alongwith Test cricket to be important and will prefer to skip all kinds of bi-lateral short format cricket.
I am not blaming Boult for choosing franchise cricket over NZ. He hasn’t actually said that he will not play for New Zealand but the board’s rule of giving preference to contracted players may mean that Boult’s New Zealand career is towards the end. A sportsman’s life is shortlived. When most of us are starting to grow in our career, a sportsman is towards the end of his career. Except for the cream, most of the players, it is difficult to survive once their career ends. They do not know from where there next pay cheque is going to come. Hence, they will have to make the most of it while they are still playing.
Indian board, England board and Australian board will be able to take care of their players even if they have only played a handful of games. Recently, the Indian board has increased the allowance of the first class players. Rest of the world does not have the means. New Zealand cricketers are among the least paid in the world. Wherever they are able to find an opportunity, they will ofcourse want to utilise it.
What triggered this?
International cricket at the current form is unsustainable. This is known to everyone who cares to listen. The latest is triggered by the decision of the UAE T20 league which has proposed to allow 9 foreign cricketers in their league. It essentially means that players like Boult will be in high demand. The pay is also likely to be pretty high. For those who have seen games at Sharjah will remember the generous purse that the organisers had spent to honour former cricketers.
UAE has allowed 9 players per team which means top players around the world will be in heavy demand. There are reports that David Warner was approached to forego BBL and play in the league. Never before have the players had the luxury of choosing where to play. The UAE league has threatened various other leagues like South African, Pakistan league, West Indies and Bangladesh league. There is a real danger that the UAE league will ween away all the best players and leave these leagues bereft of them. They stand to lose majorly.
The convenience of the leagues
Unlike international cricket, league cricket is easy. Play for a couple of months. Earn money that most of the cricketers will not be able to earn if they are contracted by their boards. The time spent on travel and other chores are also less. More and more cricketers are likely to ply their wares in these leagues. Rishabh Pant was on record when he said that he preferred to play T20 cricket before making his debut.
Wrapping up another warning issued and this time from Boult
First it was de Kock who retired from Test and Ben Stokes followed by retiring from ODI and now, it is the turn of Boult who has gone to the other extreme to relinquish his contract itself. Not to mention the exit of Kevin Pietersen when he asked ECB to release him from ODI. From the outside, it looks like things are locking into a crescendo. ICC is served sufficient amount of warnings. They will have to somehow reduce meaningless and purpose-less games. One way will be stop ODIs, play Test cricket alone and leave T20 to the franchise but make it mandatory that the ICC must get a share of the various leagues. One other important point is stop spreading the game where it will never be played and concentrate on the small pool to make the game stronger.
However, I do not think that unless a top Indian player like Pant or Bumrah decides to leave one form of the game, things will remain the same. ICC really needs a shock to wake them up from their long slumber.