Shane Watson says he wants to continue playing in domestic T20 leagues

Shane Watson has given out hints about extending his T20 playing career beyond his last season with the Sydney Thunder this summer. At the end of July, Watson will travel to the Caribbean to feature in the last year of his Caribbean Premier League (CPL) contract with the St Lucia Stars. Also, the RCB batsman will make his debut in the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) where he has been signed up by the Dhaka Dynamites. He also played for Islamabad United in Pakistan Super League (PSL) earlier this year.

There is no doubt about the fact that Watson is one of the best cricketers when it comes to the Twenty20 format. His three-year contract with the Sydney Thunder is set to expire with the coming season, after which the destructive batsman will look at more T20 leagues. Watson has made it clear that he will continue to play T20 beyond the deal with Thunders.

“If I still know I can contribute on the field, and I’m still really enjoying it as much as I can, then I’ll definitely continue to play on,” he told Fairfax Media. I know how fortunate I am to have this period of time at the back end of my career to be able to play these brilliant tournaments. While I’m still enjoying it, I’ll certainly continue to play,” Watto said.

Transition into coaching

The former Aussie allrounder had earlier this year also expressed his desire to take up the job of coaching in the near future. Since T20 domestic leagues are not very long tournaments, Watson says he has enough time on his hands to think about a transition into coaching.

“I’m able to spend time outside of just playing as well because I’ve got chunks of time off to be able to try and get the transition phase [into coaching] as smooth as it possibly can be out of my playing days because no doubt it’s a challenging time for any athlete moving onto the next phase of their life,” he concluded.