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New Zealand’s white-ball captain Mitchell Santner has turned down a big opportunity in the Big Bash League (BBL) despite receiving a strong two-year offer from Adelaide Strikers. Actually, Mitchell Santner is fully committed to his national team, and that’s why he turned down the offer.
Adelaide Strikers, which recently signed England’s Ben Stokes, wanted Santner to give up his New Zealand Cricket (NZC) central contract and join the BBL. He seriously considered the offer, but the chance to play Test cricket against India and Australia proved too big to ignore.
The star all-rounder also wants to continue leading the New Zealand National Cricket Team in white-ball cricket, so he left the BBL club disappointed. Earlier, Imran Tahir became the oldest player to take a five-wicket haul in T20 cricket.
Mitchell Santner turns down big BBL offer for India, Australia Test dream
The upcoming season has some huge assignments for New Zealand. India is set to visit New Zealand for the full series, including two Tests, while New Zealand will travel to Australia for another major Test assignment later this year.
Mitchell Santner said that he couldn’t ignore the opportunity to feature in such big games that made leaving his central contract much harder.
Santner was quoted as saying by the New Zealand Herald: “When you look ahead to the summer we've got, India here for white ball and Tests and Australia away—there's not many bigger than that—it's quite an exciting time. I'd like to still be part of that.”
The offer was good: Mitchell Santner
Santner admitted that the Adelaide Strikers offer was financially attractive, and even he seriously considered it, but New Zealand's upcoming schedule didn’t let him sign the Big Bash League contract. Amid this, Big Bash League privatization sparked a fight between CA and NSW.
The star spinner added, “The offer was good; I'm not going to lie. They knew it would have to be a good offer for me to entertain it, with contracting and what would come up. I did entertain the thought of it, but coming back to what we've got coming up, even if I'm not going to play every game of Test cricket, I still feel like there's a role for me.”
Mitchell Santner refuses to give up New Zealand captaincy
Another major factor was his New Zealand captaincy. Mitchell Santner has been the ODI and T20I captain since late 2024 and has already taken the team to the finals of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 and T20 World Cup 2026.
There were discussions about Santner keeping the captaincy even without a central contract through a casual playing agreement. However, the 33-year-old did not feel comfortable leading New Zealand while staying outside the central contract system.
The New Zealand skipper added, “I don't want to give up captaincy. If that was part of the deal, it was a no-brainer for me. There were chats that it could have worked. But for me, sitting without a central contract and trying to captain, I don't know if that would sit right at this stage.”
