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Cricket Players'Not the preferred thing': Kane Williamson reacts on New Zealand's Test series clashing with IPL 2021
New Zealand captain Kane Williamson who is an integral part of the Sunrisers Hyderabad set-up in the IPL, said Indian Premier League's clashing with New Zealand’s tour of England is ‘certainly not the preferred thing’.
As anticipation for IPL 2021 grows with each passing week, more and more international cricketers are forced to make the hard choice between the Indian Premier League and international duties as dates are bound to clash after BCCI planned to host the tournament during its original window of April-May-June this year.
New Zealand captain Kane Williamson who is an integral part of the Sunrisers Hyderabad set-up in the IPL, said IPL clashing with New Zealand’s tour of England is ‘certainly not the preferred thing’.
"It's certainly not the preferred thing," Williamson said while adding that he would like to wait for things to clear out a bit more before making a decision.
The IPL is likely to start in the second week of April and its knockout matches may stretch till early June, potentially clashing with New Zealand's first Test in England, which starts on June 2 at the Lord's.
"I know when plans were put in place that wasn't the idea then, but as we've seen, you can make plans in this day in age and very rarely do they go to plan.
"For us it's being able to adapt as quickly as possible, we still have to wait and see when dates are finalised to truly know what is happening before any decision is made but the ideal scenario is to be available and around for all that cricket," Williamson added.
The two Test matches against England were announced last month and are not part of the World Test Championships.
However, the series will be played just ahead of the final of the WTC, starting June 18, for which New Zealand have already qualified.
"We'll just have to wait and see," Williamson said.
New Zealand Cricket (NZC) has indicated that it may not block its players from fully participating in the IPL even if the knockout matches of the lucrative league clash with the Test series.
(with PTI input
