"Will Hear More": Australia Great On Trent Boult And Likely Trend To Move Away From International Cricket
"It's just getting harder and harder for these guys to maintain the full schedule of international cricket," Ricky Ponting said.
New Zealand Cricket (NZC) recently announced that Trent Boult will have a "significantly reduced" role with the Black Caps after the star fast bowler asked to be released from his central contract. "This has been a really tough decision for me and I'd like to thank NZC for their support in getting to this point," said the star pacer. "Playing cricket for my country was a childhood dream and I'm so proud of everything I've been able to achieve with the Black Caps over the past 12 years. Ultimately, this decision is about my wife Gert and our three young boys."
Boult has taken 317 wickets for New Zealand in 78 Tests, 63 wickets in T20s and 169 wickets in ODIs. Boult is fourth on the list of New Zealand's all-time Test wicket-takers behind Richard Hadlee, Daniel Vettori and his new-ball partner Tim Southee. Former Australia captain Ricky Ponting feels that it is right time for the 33-year-old pacer to think about the 'financial side' of the game.
"I think it's inevitable now with the amount of T20 domestic tournaments that are popping up all around the world now," Ponting said on The ICC Review.
"It's just getting harder and harder for these guys to maintain the full schedule of international cricket. And for someone like Trent Boult, and no disrespect to New Zealand at all, but I'm sure their national contracts are probably only reflective of maybe what he would make in one of these T20 domestic tournaments. He's coming towards the end of his career and he's got to think about his family and the financial side of the game now, probably more than ever."
Ponting is currently the coach of Delhi Capitals in the IPL and head of strategy with the Hobart Hurricanes in Australia's local Big Bash League.
Ponting said that Boult will be high demand in the franchise cricket leagues while also adding that more such examples will be heard of in the future.
"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.
"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'll read and hear more about this in the coming years."
Trent Boult