Kane Williamson’s County cricket season curtailed due to IPL 2018 fatigue
To manage Kane Williamson’s workload, New Zealand Cricket has cut down on his number of appearances for Yorkshire in the County season.
Amid an ever-increasing volume of cricket, managing a player’s workload has become extremely important in today’s times.
That is something New Zealand Cricket understands it very well as the board has decided to reduce Kiwi skipper Kane Williamson’s role in the English county this season.
Williamson, who is currently captaining Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League (IPL), was supposed to play for English county Yorkshire for the full season.
At the beginning of the IPL season, it was expected that Williamson would appear in only a handful of matches as he had done last year.
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However, after regular skipper David Warner was barred from participating in the cash-rich league following his involvement in the ball-tampering scandal in South Africa, Sunrisers franchise appointed Williamson as their new captain.
Because of this unexpected development, Williamson has gone on to play all the matches in the IPL. Taking into consideration his heavy workload, NZ Cricket has now communicated it to Yorkshire that Williamson would have a reduced role for them.
NZ Cricket’s decision left Yorkshire a bit disappointed.
“Obviously the club are disappointed by the reduced amount of cricket Kane will be available for, but he will still play a significant amount for us and we look forward to welcoming a player of his calibre back in due course,” Yorkshire’s director of cricket Martin Moxon was quoted as saying by the club’s website.
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“When Kane originally signed for us and New Zealand Cricket accepted the dates, it was thought that he wouldn’t play every game in IPL and that he wouldn’t be captain. But, with David Warner getting banned, he became captain of Sunrisers and has consequently played every game, so New Zealand Cricket want him to have more of a rest.
“We’re frustrated, obviously, and counties are having to deal with this sort of thing all the time.”
CONTRASTING CASE
While NZ Cricket’s move to reduce Williamson’s workload appears proactive, the same can’t be said about how the Board of Cricket for Control in India (BCCI) deals with its players’ workload.
It was only a few days ago that Indian skipper Virat Kohli was ruled out of his upcoming county stint with Surrey owing to a neck injury he suffered during Royal Challengers Bangalore’s recently-concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) campaign.
Kohli was desperate to play in county cricket for it would have given him ample opportunity to get the hang of English condition ahead of India’s important tour of England. However, no effort was made to ensure he didn’t over exhaust himself in the run up to it.