"Not a black and white situation" - Tom Latham's blunt take on New Zealand players declining central contracts

New Zealand star Tom Latham has suggested an idea that could help the teams deal with the players who are turning down central contracts in order to play franchise cricket.

New Zealand themselves have been dealing with this situation for quite some time now. Several players have opted out of central contracts to play T20 cricket around the globe even though they have not retired from international cricket. Last month, New Zealand Cricket suffered a big blow when their talismanic batsman Kane Williamson also decided against accepting the central contract.

He also stepped down from New Zealand's white-ball captaincy. Along with him, Lockie Ferguson and Adam Milne turned down the contracts from New Zealand Cricket as well. In 2022, star fast-bowler Trent Boult had also opted out of the central contract and has been playing in T20 leagues around the world since then.

Tom Latham's suggestion for teams:

New Zealand players are not the only ones who are prioritizing franchise cricket over internationals. Players of other teams are also giving more priority to the lucrative contracts from the T20 franchises. And as teams around the world are trying to find a solution to deal with the issue, Tom Latham believes they need to be more flexible while dealing with the situation.

"Think at the moment where cricket's going in New Zealand is slightly different," Tom Latham said. "It's certainly not a black and white situation, and certainly changing with all these leagues popping up. Guess everyone is in a slightly different boat in what their future may look like depending on their age or stage they are in life.

"We've got a lot of cricket in the summer [and] got an ICC pinnacle event [the Champions Trophy] which is exciting to look forward to.

"So whether it be with different personnel, whether it be with the guys we are used to having, whenever we can have them I'm sure that will be great, but think we've certainly got to be pretty fluid with what things look like in the future," he added.

In recent times, New Zealand have become used to playing white-ball series without the big names because of player rotation or the clash with the IPL. In April this year, New Zealand had to send a second-string side to Pakistan for the T20Is as most of their first-choice players were busy playing the IPL.

Talking about the situation, Tom Latham stated that the New Zealand contract system has worked well so far although he urged the cricket board to review the system.

"Don't know what the right system is, there is a lot of flexibility within our contracts at the moment, but think with the changing landscape of cricket I'm sure it will be something that New Zealand Cricket and the players' association look at and try and come up with something," he said.

"We've seen over many years now, at times we haven't had those senior guys. That gives me an opportunity as a senior player to step up and lead as well. But also other guys who haven't necessarily had opportunities in the past to step up in different leadership roles. It's never great when you miss guys of Kane's calibre, but it gives opportunities to other guys to put their best foot forward," he added.

Meanwhile, Latham is in contention to replace Williamson as New Zealand's ODI captain.