Australia fast bowler Nathan Coulter-Nile is looking to represent a new State team for the 2020-21 domestic season after being axed from the Western Australia (WA) squad.
The 32-year-old, who grabbed 17 wickets at 18.94 to guide WA to its third title in six years in last summer’s Marsh Cup, didn’t receive a new contract with the side after he decided to focus his attention on white-ball cricket.
Coulter-Nile said he was now “fired up” to face WA. “I’d love to face Western Australia, I’d definitely be fired up for it,” he told cricket.com.au . “I know the boys had nothing to do with the decision and a few of them openly said they were disappointed with it, but any chance I get to prove the decision-makers wrong, I’d definitely take that opportunity.”
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Coulter-Nile said he was confident of his bowling and would take up any opportunity that came his way before the Marsh Cup. “I want to play. I was the leading wicket-taker last year, I feel like I’m bowling all right. I feel like I’ve still got plenty to offer. But there’s still so much time before the Marsh Cup begins, we’ll just wait and see what happens. But I’m definitely throwing my name out there,” he said.
‘Disappointed’
Coulter-Nile has 116 wickets at 27.59 in 32 first-class games but he last played a first-class match in 2017 due to frequent injuries, especially during the Sheffield Shield. The pacer said that though he understood WA was focussing on ending its 21-year Sheffield Shield title drought, he was disappointment at not being considered for a “minimum contract” with the State. Coulter-Nile has played for WA for more than a decade.
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“I understand where they’re coming from; they want to win a Shield title and that’s the way they thought they needed to go do it. I wasn’t too shocked. I’d been given word they were going to reward the blokes bowling the most overs, which is fair enough,” he said.
“But to not even get a minimum contract, say ‘come down, help out the young kids’ I’ve been involved for 15 years so I feel like I know a bit about the game. To say I was not required at all, I was a bit disappointed, but that’s the way it goes,” Coulter-Nile said.
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