Somewhat unnoticed, New Zealand will have 53 men's cricketers involved in various competitions in Asia across April and May.
In these two months, four different competitions – one each in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh – are taking place in Asia that will feature cricketers from New Zealand:
- Indian Premier League (March 28 - May 31)
- Pakistan Super League (March 26 - May 3)
- New Zealand A tour of Sri Lanka (April 5 - April 26)
- New Zealand tour of Bangladesh (April 17 - May 2)
Rob Walter: Need to strengthen our whole system, not just a small group of players
Ahead of the start of the Bangladesh series, New Zealand head coach Rob Walter spoke about this being part of a conscious effort from New Zealand Cricket: "If you send out entire team to Sri Lanka, and then bring them here (Bangladesh), you've missed out an opportunity to give 12 other players the opportunity to develop their skills in Sri Lanka.
"We try not to do that, we try to use our opportunities as much as we possibly can. It's been reported we've got 54 New Zealand cricketers playing right now in different parts of the world... be that IPL, PSL, here, in Sri Lanka. That's just under half of our contracted players in the country."
"We're giving a large number of players international experience at different levels, trying to make sure we strengthen our whole system and not just a small group of players. We understand that the international world of cricket is challenging because a lot of players are getting pulled in different directions. Ultimately, we have to take care of that and make sure we're ready – whoever we compete against, we've got a number of cricketers who are internationally ready."
Fifty-three of the 54 players Walter mentioned are playing in Asia, with one (Ajaz Patel) currently playing in the County Championship for Leicestershire in England.
Eighteen cricketers are in currently in action across the PSL and IPL, including Ben Sears, who will miss the ODI leg of the Bangladesh tour to play for Rawalpindiz. Lockie Ferguson is contracted to the Punjab Kings in the IPL but is yet to join the squad, having been on paternity leave thus far.
All the 53 New Zealand cricketers playing in Asia this summer
| Name | Competition(s) | |||||
| Adithya Ashok | SL-A (OD) | BAN (ODI) | ||||
| Ben Lister | SL-A (OD) | SL-A (FC) | BAN (ODI) | BAN (T20I) | ||
| Ben Sears | SL-A (OD) | BAN (T20I) | PSL | |||
| Curtis Heaphy | SL-A (OD) | SL-A (FC) | ||||
| Dale Phillips | SL-A (OD) | SL-A (FC) | ||||
| Fraser Sheat | SL-A (FC) | |||||
| Jarrod McKay | SL-A (FC) | |||||
| Kristian Clarke | SL-A (OD) | BAN (ODI) | BAN (T20I) | |||
| Matthew Boyle | SL-A (OD) | SL-A (FC) | ||||
| Max Chu | SL-A (OD) | SL-A (FC) | ||||
| Michael Rae | SL-A (FC) | |||||
| Mitch Hay | SL-A (OD) | SL-A (FC) | ||||
| Muhammad Abbas | SL-A (OD) | BAN (ODI) | ||||
| Peter Younghusband | SL-A (FC) | |||||
| Rhys Mariu | SL-A (OD) | SL-A (FC) | ||||
| Rohit Gulati | SL-A (OD) | SL-A (FC) | ||||
| Ryan Harrison | SL-A (FC) | |||||
| Simon Keene | SL-A (OD) | SL-A (FC) | ||||
| Tim Pringle | SL-A (OD) | SL-A (FC) | ||||
| Tim Robinson | SL-A (OD) | SL-A (FC) | BAN (T20I) | |||
| Tom Latham | BAN (ODI) | BAN (T20I) | ||||
| Dane Cleaver | BAN (ODI) | BAN (T20I) | ||||
| Nick Kelly | BAN (ODI) | BAN (T20I) | ||||
| Henry Nicholls | BAN (ODI) | |||||
| Will Young | BAN (ODI) | |||||
| Josh Clarkson | BAN (ODI) | BAN (T20I) | ||||
| Dean Foxcroft | BAN (ODI) | BAN (T20I) | ||||
| Nathan Smith | BAN (ODI) | BAN (T20I) | ||||
| Jayden Lennox | BAN (ODI) | BAN (T20I) | ||||
| Will O'Rourke | BAN (ODI) | |||||
| Blair Tickner | BAN (ODI) | BAN (T20I) | ||||
| Katene Clarke | BAN (T20I) | |||||
| Bevon Jacobs | BAN (T20I) | |||||
| Matthew Fisher | BAN (T20I) | |||||
| Ish Sodhi | BAN (T20I) | |||||
| Devon Conway | PSL | |||||
| Mark Chapman | PSL | |||||
| Michael Bracewell | PSL | |||||
| Cole McConchie | PSL | |||||
| Daryl Mitchell | PSL | |||||
| Brett Hampton | PSL | |||||
| Zak Foulkes | IPL | |||||
| Matt Henry | IPL | |||||
| Kyle Jamieson | IPL | |||||
| Lockie Ferguson | IPL | |||||
| Glenn Phillips | IPL | |||||
| Finn Allen | IPL | |||||
| Tim Seifert | IPL | |||||
| Rachin Ravindra | IPL | |||||
| Mitchell Santner | IPL | |||||
| Trent Boult | IPL | |||||
| Adam Milne | IPL | |||||
| Jacob Duffy | IPL | |||||
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