2027 World Cup on the horizon? Kane Williamson drops big hint regarding his New Zealand future
Former New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson is all set to return for the Black Caps after a long time away from international cricket in the upcoming three-match ODI series against England at home. Williamson, who is on a casual contract, is still a key component of New Zealand's ODI and Test squads.
Former New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson may be on a casual contract with NZC, however, the 35-year-old is still quite committed to playing for the Black Caps, with Test cricket still being his priority. Williamson last played for New Zealand back in March during the Champions Trophy and has missed quite a few assignments since then, including the Zimbabwe tour and the two T20I assignments at the start of the home summer. However, with the ODIs against England and the first series of the new WTC cycle approaching, Williamson was excited to get stuck into it.
One of the greatest batters of his generation, Williamson acknowledged the changing priorities as a sportsperson and admitted that spending time with his young family became his in the last couple of years but wants to achieve a balance to be able to give it back to New Zealand cricket as well, as much as possible.
"As your life situation changes as mine has and incredibly grateful as well for that with three young children and the balance between where you spend your time and give your attention is really, really important to me. So still being able to play for New Zealand and play the sport that I love at the highest level is great, but the balance is the most important thing for me,” Williamson said in the NZC video.
Williamson mentioned that representing his country is still very important to him and even though the 2027 Cricket World Cup is still back of his mind, he doesn't want to look too far ahead into the future and wants to stay in the present. "I still love the game, and have a strong desire to get better and train hard and offer whatever I can for the team and that's really important to me - as a young player or as a school kid that was always the thing was you just worked hard at your game, you always tried to get better and that's kind of not changed," he further said.
“Not (looking) too far ahead I mean I guess back in my mind is there's probably the ODI World Cup and there's always other things, Test cricket is pretty dear to me as well so really it's a little bit about what I want and a little bit more about what the team wants and where it's going and what we're sort of buying into," he added.
Not just Williamson, the likes of Devon Conway, Lockie Ferguson, Finn Allen and Tim Seifert, who either are on casual contracts or haven't signed up at all, are still being able to represent New Zealand and the former skipper recognised the importance of timely and clear communication with the board, to not complicate the situation in the future.
"Just sort of keeping those lines of communication open to make sure that we're nice and focused and clear on what it looks like. But also being sort of really respectful of the fact that this is a team in a special place and they're always trying to build towards something. So for me in this phase of my career it's if I'm there and able to add to it, brilliant," he added.