Corey Anderson confirms retiring for New Zealand, signs up three-year deal with USA's MLC

Corey Anderson has confirmed his association with New Zealand Cricket as the allrounder has decided to switch base to the USA. The former New Zealand star is now set to start a new inning in his career after accepting a three-year contract with the upcoming Major League Cricket (MLC) in the USA. The 29-year old last played for New Zealand in 2018.

He represented the Black Caps in all the three formats of the game. Anderson played 13 Tests, 49 ODIs and 31 T20I for his country and scored more than 2000 runs in addition to taking 90 wickets across formats. Anderson made a name for himself after scoring the then fastest ODI century in 2014. He scored the century off just 36 balls against West Indies before the record was broken by AB de Villiers.

Anderson was a key member of the New Zealand team that made it to the final of the World Cup 2015. It was New Zealand’s first-ever appearance in the World Cup final. The allrounder had scored an impressive 231 runs at an average of 33 and picked up 14 wickets with his left-arm medium pace. But Anderson’s promising international career was derailed due to a spate of injuries.

‘It’s been a huge honour’: Corey Anderson

As Corey Anderson gears up for a new journey in the game, he has expressed his gratitude for New Zealand Cricket. The former New Zealand all-rounder said that it was a huge honour for him to represent the Black Caps and also said that he would have loved to play more for them. He also said that taking the decision was tough but his fiance who is an American made things a bit easier.

“It’s been a huge honour and extremely proud to represent New Zealand. I would have loved to have achieved and played more but just is what it is sometimes, and different opportunities arise and send you in a direction you never thought would be a possibility. Very appreciative for everything that NZC has done for me,” Corey Anderson told Cricbuzz.

“It hasn’t been an easy decision. I asked myself several questions. What do I want to do now or what do I want to achieve in the next two years, five years, 10 years?

“As you get older you think about life a little bit more broadly as well. And obviously, my fiancée, Mary Margaret, who’s born and raised in America, she’s had a massive part to play in that because she’s sacrificed so much for me, by moving to New Zealand, getting immersed in a different culture there and supporting me through a lot of tough times with injuries and time out of cricket. So, when the opportunity arose, we thought that living in America is the best thing, not only for my cricket, but it’s the best thing for both of us in general as well,” he added.