Trent was not on the latest NZC list of central contracts, which was announced last week, but the board offered him a casual playing agreement.
While raising his concerns over New Zealand pacer Trent Boult’s deal with New Zealand Cricket, their former coach Mike Hesson said his contract is “untidy” and “will open a can of worms”. Boult gave up his New Zealand contract last year in the month of August to spend more time with family and continue playing franchise cricket around the world. He is also going to play in the inaugural season of the United States Major League Cricket, which is going to start next month. Trent was not on the latest NZC list of central contracts, which was announced last week, but the board offered him a casual playing agreement.
Hesson said, “If you want the IPL and two or three or four other tournaments as well, you probably can’t have everything, and that’s a decision you’ve got to make at the start of the year, and I just think the flexi contracts just make it a bit untidy.”
“It just gets really untidy when you’ve got 20 contracts, or however many are on that NZC list now, and then you have an extra one for Boult, and next year you might have three extra ones, and it just gets untidy.”
Hesson feels that with T20 leagues mushrooming across the world, NZC will soon face a situation where it will have to offer different contracts to different cricketers depending on their circumstances.
“Under the current NZC model, it doesn’t. You get ranked in three different ways, and you add the points up, and that’s your number. Everyone knows that, and it’s actually worked pretty well for an extended period of time.
Hesson further said that “this flexi contract might work really well for Trent and it might actually work well for New Zealand Cricket, but it does open up a whole can of worms.”
