Former New Zealand coach Mike Hesson has given a stunning statement and termed Trent Boult's contract with New Zealand Cricket (NZC) ‘untidy’. While raising concern over Boult's deal with NZC, Hesson said that it will open a can of worms.
Last year in August Kiwi pace spearhead Boult forewent New Zealand's contract to franchise cricket and to spend more time with family. After playing IPL 2023 for Rajasthan Royals, Boult is set to play the inaugural season of United States Major League Cricket which is slated to kick off in July.
New Zealand Cricket board offered Boult a casual playing agreement despite not being part of the latest central contract.
"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," Hesson said on Sky Sports.
"It just gets really untidy when you've got 20 contracts or however many is 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," he added.
Boult is likely to be part of New Zealand's squad for the ODI World Cup which will be held in India later this year as he last played for his team back in 2022 in the T20 World Cup.
But after witnessing the dominance of T20 league across the world, Hesson believes NZC will soon encounter with 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 forms and you add the points up and that's your number and everyone has known that and it's actually worked pretty well for an extended period of time. This flexi contract it 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," Hesson said.
Meanwhile, former New Zealand star batter Craig McMillan also gave his opinion on Boult's contract.
"It seemed only 12 months ago Trent Boult was more than happy to make his decision to move away from international cricket and take the riches of the T20 franchises around the world and you couldn't bemoan him that," McMillan said.
"He'd had a wonderful career for New Zealand and been a great servant and now almost wants a little bit of a dollar each way. It's a difficult one. It doesn't sit overly well with me and I'm sure it doesn't sit with some of the other players within the setup who are doing the hard yards then have to move back (when they return)," McMillan concluded.
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