When Jimmy Neesham dipped out of NZC's contracted Blackcaps pool earlier this year it caused a wee kerfuffle as Aotearoa's journalists whipped up terms such as 'axed' and this was even described as 'some fall for the 31-year-old'. NZC contracts hold no relevance to team selection though and in the current cricketing landscape, not having an NZC contract can be highly beneficial to kiwi cricketers.

Neesham is also without a domestic cricket contract, adding further funk to this situation. Without any cricket contract in Aotearoa, Neesham has played all seven T20I games of their European tour and this brings us to a double-whammy of Neesham efficiency. Given that NZC don't pay Neesham as part of their contract structure, Neesham is providing efficient value by simply playing for Aotearoa and he's also laying out incredibly efficient batting mahi.

We don't need to get deep in the NZC financial mangroves here and to keep this as simple as possible, view this as Neesham offering value for money. No contract means NZC pay Neesham less, while Neesham is generally serving up the same mahi as he was when he had a contract. Neesham would probably prefer the stability of an NZC contract, but he is still being paid for his Blackcaps appearances and without any contract in Aotearoa, Neesham is free to play Big Bash League cricket for example.

Neesham's cricketing exploits are low key fabulous. Neesham sits 7th for T20I batting strike-rates (166.36sr) and the only other kiwi in the same realm as Neesham is Colin Munro (13th). Of current Blackcaps, Devon Conway leads the chasing pack ranked 60th. Of the six players ranked ahead of Neesham, India's Suryakumar Yadav is the only one who plays for a top-tier cricketing nation. This means that Neesham has the 2nd highest T20I career strike-rate ever, of players who represent Test playing nations. This was amplified against weaker teams like Ireland, Scotland and Netherlands...

T20Is vs Ireland: 220.83sr.

T20Is vs Scotland: 276.19sr.

T20Is vs Netherlands: 188.23sr.

While those stats are boosted by playing against weaker opponents, Neesham operated at 175.51sr during the T20 World Cup last year. At the T20 Blast prior to the European tour, Neesham cruised along at 173.46sr.

This hasn't always been the case either as Neesham started his T20I career with 14.57avg/132.21sr (2012-2015). Neesham then fell out of the Blackcaps mixer before returning in 2017 with 28.56avg/175.76sr (2017-22). That's a fairly impressive leap from Neesham and those who heard whispers of Neesham's ability on the cricket scene back in the day would view this as Neesham hitting his potential.

When Neesham didn't get an NZC contract, a lack of ODI cricket and Neesham apparently falling out of the ODI mixer were suggested as reasons for his omission. Neesham was not in the ODI squad to face Ireland but was then in the ODI squad to face Scotland and is now in the ODI/T20I squad to tour West Indies. The squad to tour West Indies should be viewed as the best white-ball squad available for Aotearoa and Neesham's part of that top-15.

Not being in the ODI squad to face Ireland saw Neesham play one game of County Championship with Northamptonshire and well, Neesham was typically efficient. Neesham hit a 33 and 91 (90sr) as well as taking a wicket and then departed to smack boundaries for Aotearoa.

Neesham has been and will continue to be a fascinating lad to track over the coming months. Everything about Neesham's cricketing exploits oozes efficiency and he will be a key member of the Blackcaps T20I 1st 11 at the World Cup. That will then be followed by the kiwi summer and Neesham has no contract in Aotearoa, so he can do whatever he wants to do. Maybe Neesham wants to play BBL or maybe he wants to pop up for some fun Plunket Shield cricket? Aotearoa has never had a bloke operate with such batting efficiency, nor has there been a contract/career situation like this before.

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Peace and love.