NZC in conversation with Kane Williamson over availability ahead of home summer

New Zealand head coach Rob Walter has spoken up about his and the team management's talks with the experienced cricketer Kane Williamson in terms of his availability to play for the country for their upcoming home summer. Williamson, like a few other players, is currently on a casual contract with New Zealand Cricket (NZC).

Walter was quite confident that Williamson will feature for BlackCaps somewhere down the line. However, discussions regarding the same were said to be ongoing with the former New Zealand skipper. Walter admitted that a player of Williamson's stature warranted a fair chat with the board on how he would like to chart out his cricketing schedule. He also mentioned that Williamson still wanted to play for the nation.

"Kane, we're still in conversations as to what the summer is going to look like. He will play, no doubt about that. Just what and where is still in discussion. I think the reality is we're dealing with all the guys on casual contracts, actually in different positions from a playing point of view," stated Walter, as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

"Kane is one of those and he deserves the opportunity to sit and talk about what the rest of his year will look like. But I keep coming back to the most important thing, [which] is that he wants to play for his country, and so nutting out exactly what that looks like can take an extra week or two, but surely, he deserves that," he added.

The Wellington-born cricketer previously missed the tour of Zimbabwe in order to play county cricket and the Men's Hundred in the United Kingdom. Later, he was also unavailable for New Zealand for their three-match T20I series against Australia at home.

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Speaking of the Kiwis, they will next take on England in a six-match white-ball series which is set to comprise three T20Is followed by as many ODIs. The West Indies will then visit New Zealand for an all-format series across November and December.