Trent Boult says permanent goodbye to Kane Williamson and New Zealand as he announces...

Updated - 16 Jun 2024, 01:39 PM

Trent Boult
Trent Boult (Credits: X)

Left-arm seamer Trent Boult has confirmed that he will no longer play in the ICC T20 World Cup after the ongoing edition's last group match. 

Trent Boult doesn't feature anymore for the Kiwi team after opting out of the board's annual central contracts back in 2022. Since then, left-arm seamer appeared mainly in major ICC events like the Cricket World Cup and the T20 World Cups. Questions were raised about his patriotism but Boult has found solace playing in franchise T20 leagues around the world. 

After all, who wouldn't like to make some easy money by playing cricket for less than even 2 months? The Indian Premier League might be the competition wherein Trent Boult plays for nearly 3 months. Otherwise, leagues in UAE, South Africa, West Indies, USA, and Bangladesh among others run for only a month. 

Trent Boult's distance from the international circuit had quite a negative impact on his as well as New Zealand's performance. The Blackcaps went through a nightmarish T20 World Cup 2024 in the USA and West Indies as they are not going through to the Super 8s. Defeats to West Indies and Afghanistan ensured the Kiwis' exit. 

Kane Williamson's men opened their winning account against Uganda and currently, they are awaiting their final Group C game of the event. Ahead of the match against Papua New Guinea, Trent Boult made a massive announcement. 

Trent Boult confirms he is done with T20 World Cups 

While speaking to media reporters recently, Trent Boult admitted that he is done with the T20 World Cup as well. Last year, he might have possibly played his final ODI World Cup edition and this year he is bidding goodbye to another format's WC. 

In his statement, Trent Boult thanked his longtime national team bowling partner Tim Southee for creating fond memories. Boult claimed that Southee has been a great friend to him throughout his career and that he is expecting to do more good things outside of New Zealand cricket. 

"Speaking on behalf of myself, this will be my last T20 World Cup. I look at the partnership with Tim with very fond memories. We bowled a lot of overs together. I know the partnership very well, and obviously he's a very good friend on and off the ground. It was nice to wind back the clock a little bit and see a bit of swing bowling at the top. Some great memories, and hopefully a couple more still to come," Boult told media reporters.    

Boult says New Zealand could have played better 

Trent Boult went on to further claim that New Zealand could have performed better in this T20 World Cup. He said that losses against the Windies and Afghanistan in the opening two matches were disappointing and that the team should have reacted well to the adverse conditions. 

"They're still guys that will be here for some time. I think if we just look at the two matches to start off... no doubt disappointing. You come to a world event, you want to start well and to be honest, we need to be better in these conditions specifically. We know that it's going to be a real scrap and it's not going to be easy," Trent Boult concluded. 

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Trent Boult New Zealand national cricket team ICC T20 World Cup 2024 Kane Williamson Tim Southee ICC T20 World Cup