Hours after the New Zealand Cricket (NZC) board announced a major decision to initiate proceedings for their first franchise-based T20 league, a former New Zealand captain stepped down from the national cricket board on Monday.
With a year of planning going into the decision, the NZC agreed in principle to support the initiative launched by the New Zealand Cricket Players’ Association (NZCPA) for a franchise-based T20 tournament in the country. The move had also found the backing of the six Major Associations – Auckland, Northern Districts, Wellington, Central Districts, Canterbury and Otago.
The proposed T20 league would then “revitalise” the Super Smash, currently the premier T20 tournament played in New Zealand by the associations. However, fallouts emerging from the decision also meant former Kiwi skipper, Dion Nash, exited the national board on Monday.
New T20 model
The pitch for a rejig of the T20 tournament over the past year had seen a variety of options, including the proposal of fielding a New Zealand team in Australia’s premier T20 tournament, the Big Bash League (BBL), before the NZC board announced a fresh direction on Monday.