“When you look ahead to the summer we’ve got, India here for white ball and Tests and Australia away – there’s not many bigger than that – it’s quite an exciting time,” Santner told the New Zealand Herald. “I’d like to still be part of that.”

“The offer was good, I’m not going to lie. They knew it would have to be a good offer for me to entertain it with contracting and what would come up. I did entertain the thought of it, but coming back to what we’ve got coming up, even if I’m not going to play every game of Test cricket, I still feel like there’s a role for me.”

Santner has been New Zealand’s ODI and T20I captain since late 2024 and under him the side has reached the finals of the Champions Trophy and T20 World Cup. There had been early conversations about how he could have retained the captaincy on a casual contract, but he said that wouldn’t have felt right.

“I don’t want to give up captaincy,” he said. “If that was part of the deal, it was a no brainer for me. There were chats that it could have worked. But for me, sitting without a central contract and trying to captain, I don’t know if that would sit right at this stage.”

Part of the NZC central contract agreement is that players need to be available for the Super Smash which takes in place in January, currently overlapping with both the BBL and SA20.

NZC has taken a pragmatic approach to the evolving global landscape of international and franchise cricket, aware they can’t match the money available in various T20 leagues, by offering a casual playing agreement to a number of players over recent years.