Kane Richardson likely to head towards freelance T20 career after Queensland snub

Ace pacer Kane Richardson is likely to join several other cricketers in having a freelance career in T20 cricket. Notably, the 32-year-old has been omitted from the Queensland contract list, meaning he will be without a state deal in the forthcoming Australian summer. Thus, it is very likely to see the Australia pacer play in various franchise-based competitions in the upcoming season.

Notably, Richardson has represented Australia in 25 ODI matches and 35 T20Is, the most recent of which came against Afghanistan in the T20 World Cup 2022, which was hosted on his home soil. Meanwhile, even though Richardson is far below in the pecking order for the upcoming ODI World Cup but the pacer may find a place in Australia's squad for the upcoming edition of the T20 World Cup, which is slated to take place in the West Indies and in the USA.

Meanwhile, other than Richardson, Sam Heazlett, who made his international debut in 2017 has also been omitted from a possible contract along with Sam Truloff and Matthew Willans. Speaking about four of these cricketers, Queensland Cricket's general manager of high performance Bennett King said that the four of them will definitely be in their plans going forward.

“The four players going off the list certainly remain in our selection plans going forward,'' Bennett King, Queensland Cricket's general manager of high performance said. Each of them has had the chance for in-depth discussions with our coaching staff and selectors about where things sit leading into the coming season and what we will be looking for from them in Premier Cricket,' King mentioned as reported by ESPNcricinfo.

Queensland men's contracts 2023-24: Xavier Bartlett, James Bazley, Max Bryant, Hugo Burdon (R), Joe Burns, Jack Clayton, Blake Edwards, Liam Guthrie, Aryan Jain, Usman Khawaja (CA), Matthew Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne (CA), Ben McDermott, Michael Neser (CA), Jimmy Peirson, Will Prestwidge (R), Matthew Renshaw, Gurinder Sandhu, Jack Sinfield (R), Mark Steketee, Bryce Street, Connor Sully, Mitch Swepson, Hugh Weibgen (R), Tom Whitney (R), Jack Wildermuth