New Zealand news – Blair Tickner thrilled with New Zealand central contract

“I guess I don’t have to go back to the coffee shop and make coffees four months a year,” Blair Tickner joked after returning to the 20-man New Zealand central contracts list on Wednesday after a gap of two seasons.

Tickner is a trained barista and he and his partner, Sarah Reid, own and operate the 13th Stag Café in Hastings. He would clearly much rather bowl fast for New Zealand, though, and has been doing so with pretty impressive results since returning to the national side in late 2025 after a gap of almost two-and-a-half years.

Since his comeback, Tickner has played two Tests and five ODIs and picked up 23 wickets combined. That includes three four-wicket hauls in ODIs and a six-for, his first five-wicket haul in international cricket, in the one-off Test against Ireland before New Zealand went to England.

“I’ve loved every moment being back. And I just want to keep enjoying my cricket and hopefully putting performances on for the team,” Tickner told reporters in London, where the second Test against England will be played from later in the day [at The Oval]. “I honestly reckon I’ve never really bowled better, especially domestically in the last few years. And I felt like if I did get my opportunities I was going to be good enough to play and put on performances. But obviously, until you do the first one or the second one, I think you don’t believe in it. And then now I just feel like any opportunity I get I can take it. And I just want to be putting myself forward and making sure that the team has winning performances.”

He has clearly been a much-improved bowler: in three Tests in his first stint with New Zealand, he got 12 wickets, but at the time, with Tim Southee, Neil Wagner and Matt Henry around, and Trent Boult having only recently walked away from Test cricket, he was really just filling in. In 13 ODIs, he had 16 wickets. The improvement and his comeback have coincided with his time with Derbyshire in county cricket.

“It does make a major difference when it comes to that because you’re not looking to play all year round. Especially me, I just really want to get into the New Zealand environment all the time. I want to be playing all the time for the team. If I get more time to work on my game, it’s always better”
Blair Tickner on his New Zealand central contract

“I guess I’ve worked on moving the ball more and bowling faster at times when it was needed,” he said. “I think I just did have a few years over in county cricket as well. So I played about two years straight of cricket and sort of learnt a lot about my action, where I needed to be. And yeah, I think all that put together has just worked well with me.

“And now, obviously having bowled with the Dukes [ball] before, it’s been going to Ireland and already bowling with the Dukes and understanding how I need to bowl with it. I think it’s just those little experiences that work out. And yeah, obviously now it feels like I am probably in the best form I have been in my life. So I just want to keep rolling with that.”

In England, Tickner is part of a fast-bowling attack that looks very different from what it was when he started out in international cricket, with Henry as the leader, and Will O’Rourke, Zak Foulkes, Kyle Jamieson and Nathan Smith around.

“I think it’s pretty cool because there’s a lot of different types of bowlers in our bowling line-up. The way that we get bounce or pace or swing, there’s so many different ways that we skin it,” Tickner said. “It’s been awesome to work with each other, but also knowing that it’s a bit of competition as well, friendly competition on how we go. And I think it’s a good way to push the team forward.

“I think I’ve never seen such a talented bowling line-up. It’s awesome to be a little cog in the wheel to hopefully push for Test wins going forward. We’ve got a massive calendar coming up. It’s not going to be just a group of four bowlers. It’s going to be all of us that are going to push for the next few months.”

And to return to the subject of coffee, and contracts: “You sometimes don’t have the balance because you need to be playing, because you’re not contracted for 12 months of the year. By having a central contract, it means that you can concentrate on the Black Caps games coming up and making sure your best fit or your body, everything is ready to go when the series do come around and the team needs you.

“It does make a major difference when it comes to that because you’re not looking to play all year round. Especially me, I just really want to get into the New Zealand environment all the time. I want to be playing all the time for the team. If I get more time to work on my game, it’s always better.”

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