Ricky Ponting was quoted as saying, “It’s just getting tougher and harder for these guys to maintain the full programme of international cricket.” [Cricket commentator]
After the top fast bowler asked to be freed from his core contract, New Zealand Cricket (NZC) recently made the announcement that Trent Boult will have a “substantially reduced” role with the Black Caps. The leading pacer stated, “This has been a really difficult decision for me, and I’d like to thank NZC for their support in getting to this stage,” as she thanked NZC for their assistance. “My childhood desire was to play cricket for my nation, and I’m very happy of all I’ve been able to accomplish with the Black Caps over the past 12 years. Playing cricket for my country was a boyhood dream of mine. In the end, this choice will affect my family—specifically, my wife Gert and our three young sons.”
Boult has amassed 317 wickets for New Zealand throughout 78 Test matches, 63 wickets across 63 T20 matches, and 169 wickets across 169 One-Day International matches. After Richard Hadlee, Daniel Vettori, and Tim Southee, Boult is currently ranked fourth on the list of New Zealand’s all-time Test wicket-takers. Southee and Vettori are Boult’s new-ball partner. Ricky Ponting, who captained Australia in the past, believes that it is about time for Mitchell Starc, who is 33 years old and a pacer, to start thinking about the “money side” of the game.
Ponting stated this in an interview for The ICC Review, saying, “I think it’s inevitable today with the quantity of T20 domestic competitions that are coming up all across the world now.” [Citation needed]
“These guys are going to have a much tougher time keeping up with the full pace of international cricket as it moves forward. And for someone like Trent Boult, whose national contracts are probably only representative of maybe what he would make in one of these Twenty20 domestic competitions, I mean no disrespect at all to New Zealand, but I’m sure their national contracts are only reflective of that. He is getting close to the end of his career, and as a result, he needs to focus his attention on his family as well as the financial aspects of the game more than he ever has before.”
Ponting is presently serving as a coach for the Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League and as the head of strategy for the Hobart Hurricanes in the Big Bash League in Australia.
Ponting predicted that Boult will have a high demand in the franchise cricket leagues, and he also predicted that such incidents will be talked of more frequently in the years to come.
“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 draught because he would be in high demand,” Ponting said. “This is because the Big Bash draught is coming up, and because of that, he would be in high demand.”
“Because of their fondness for the Twenty20 format of the game and their ability to win a lot of money in a variety of events, I believe that the West Indians were probably the ones who started this trend many years ago. In the years to come, I believe we will learn more about this topic through reading and hearing.”
