Corey Anderson retires from New Zealand, will play for the USA cricket team
New Zealand left-hand batsman all-rounder Corey Anderson has confirmed to quit from New Zealand cricket and has signed a contract with USA cricket to play in Major Cricket League (MLC).
Corey Anderson is among the top players to be picked by USA cricket board. After securing Pakistan’s Sami Aslam and South Africa’s Dane Piedt, USA board has picked up second fastest ODI century record holder Corey Anderson to play for that team.
ALSO READ: Sami Aslam leaves Pakistan to play for USA
New Zealand all-rounder reports to Cricbuzz confirming that he is joining MLC, franchise-based cricket league to be played at Dallas in 2022, that this decision was not easy for him. He had to ask a lot of questions to himself before signing the contract. It had been an honor to serve NZC all these years, and he appreciates whatever they have done for him. But one needs to affirm the new opportunities which will be fruitful to the future of an individual. Also moving into America with his American born finance Mary Shedburger is the right decision at the moment.
He further said that he visited a minor cricket league exhibition there and he was surprised to watch the level of players and cricket in America. He is quite certain that cricket will be rose to the international level in the upcoming years.
Corey Anderson has played a key role in many matches for New Zealand. His fastest ODI century in 36 balls against West Indies in 2014 has stunned the cricket world. However, the record was broken a year later by AB De Villiers. The virile personality of him has always favored hitting huge boundaries in form of sixes. He played tremendously in the 2015 world cup against Australia but New Zealand ended up being runner up. The run machine has played his last match for New Zealand against Pakistan in T20 format back in November 2018.
Previous Kiwi players had been afflicted with injuries. His debut T20 series against South Africa proved to be futile for him as he couldn’t do much in that series due to injuries. A continuation of fitness issues has affected his career.
USA’s cricket CEO’s remarks
USA cricket CEO, Lain Higgins says to espn earlier this year: “We want to win cricket games. We want to qualify for World T20s, we want to qualify for World Cups. We want to win cricket matches. By winning cricket matches, we’re able to – we don’t do this very well at the moment, but we need to do this better – we build heroes and role models that are wearing the stars and stripes, and we need to amplify those stories.
Sometimes those will be people who have come through the US and sometimes those will be people that come into the team because they have a passport or have qualified on residency grounds. But we want the USA team to be at the forefront of the international cricketing community’s minds.”
It is apparent from his statement that we are going to see a big cricket nation emerging from this region. There is news that the next target to be included in the USA cricket team is an English player; Liam Plunkett.
