"Trent Boult's New Zealand Contract Will Open Can Of Worms": Mike Hesson

Raising concerns over pacer Trent Boult's deal with New Zealand Cricket (NZC), former Black Caps coach Mike Hesson said his contract is "untidy" and "will open a can of worms". Boult gave up his New Zealand contract last August to spend more time with family and continue playing franchise cricket around the world. Boult, who features in the IPL, will play in the inaugural season of United States Major League Cricket, starting next month. The 33-year-old left-arm pacer wasn't a part of NZC's latest central contract list announced last week but the board offered him a casual playing agreement.

"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." Boult, who last played for New Zealand during the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia, is likely to be a part of the Black Caps squad for the ODI World Cup in India later this year.

With T20 leagues mushrooming across the world, Hesson feels NZC would 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 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