Trent Boult (New Zealand player) post-match Press Conference - 14th June 2024
[Reporter:]
What was the message going into today's game amongst the players?
[Trent Boult:]
Yeah, go out there and make the most of the opportunity. Yeah, obviously a disappointing position to be in, but any time you get to represent the country is always a very proud moment and I thought the boys put on a great performance this afternoon.
[Reporter:]
You came into this game knowing that unfortunately you're no longer in contention but did that affect the game plan in any way as you approached today's game?
[Trent Boult:]
I don't think so no. Yeah definitely not the start we wanted in the tournament. Yeah, a hard one to take but yeah, we had a job to do this afternoon and I thought the boys did that very nicely.
[Reporter:]
It's not quite over yet, you have one more game to play, what is the thinking going into that game, is there anything you're still looking to get out of this tournament?
[Trent Boult:]
Once again just an opportunity to represent the country in the way we know how to do, always a lot of pride wearing the fern on our chest and yeah T20 cricket, international cricket has to be played with a lot of pride so looking forward to another good occasion.
[Reporter:]
And you mentioned representing the country and you've been part of a sort of partnership over the years with Tim Southey and you guys were at it again tonight sharing five wickets amongst yourselves. Talk to us about that partnership that you've had with him over the years and what it means to be playing alongside him.
[Trent Boult:]
Yeah, I look at it with very fond memories. We bowled a lot of overs together. I know the partnership very well, and obviously a very good friend on and off the ground. So yeah, nice to wind back the clock a little bit and see a bit of swing bowling at the top. So yeah, like I said, some great memories, and hopefully a couple more still to come.
[Reporter:]
Hi Trent, the pitches in this tournament have been a lot better for the bowlers than previous tournaments. Would you welcome that greater equalisation between bat and ball that you see from the pitches in this tournament for future ones?
[Trent Boult:]
Yeah, I think it's been a challenge there's no doubt about it. There's been some very low scores. I've played cricket all around the world recently and you yeah, you come up with a lot of different conditions. It's always a challenge in adapting to conditions, but I think the balance has been far too much on the bowler's side, but they just haven't been very good wickets. Yeah, I don't know what that comes down to. I haven't been to the Caribbean in a wee while, but yeah, it was my debut down in Guyana but I was a very slow wicket down there and then the wicket here has been what I'd call just up and down so yeah, it's been a good challenge for bat and ball but it's interesting to see in a world tournament.
[Reporter:]
But you've enjoyed bowling on the better pitch conditions?
[Trent Boult:]
I think you want a good balance between bat and ball, obviously. I want to see the ball swinging. I look for more overheads than wickets itself. But yeah, it's been a unique tournament, obviously across two countries, several games on each day and I spoke briefly in my interview the other day about the tournament being two weeks into the tournament, several teams had already qualified and we'd only played one game. So, it's a little bit unique, but I love coming to this part of the world. It's a great place to tour. And yeah, just gutted we're not going any further, to be honest.
[Reporter:]
Your country has enjoyed a huge amount of success over the last half a decade or so. Does this not qualifying for the next round feel like the end of an era or is this just a blip that you will get back to where you were before, after this one?
[Trent Boult:]
It's a hard one to forecast. Like I said there's a lot of pride in the dressing room and playing for the country. We've had some great records across the however many years and it's something that we don't look at too much. We come here to do a job and perform the way we know how to perform and play the game in the way that we want to play it. Unfortunately, we've been off the ball over the last couple of weeks and that's what it takes to not qualify. So, it's unfortunate but I think there's still some tremendous talent inside that dressing room and coming through the ranks in New Zealand cricket. So, we're a proud nation and I think it will continue to go that way.
[Reporter:]
In the IPL the wickets were belters. Here it's a different scenario. How good do you think this is for cricket?
In the IPL there were belters because you were getting 200 plus scores in this tournament, I think it's only just Australia that went past 200. What do you make of this situation for cricket? How good do you think this is for cricket? Low scores is what we've been seeing lately
[Trent Boult:]
It's hard to compare to the IPL, obviously it's a different beast, there's different rules, different wickets and grounds that have you know well-established grounds etc. So, it's a hard one to compare. Yeah, I think anyone that thinks T20 cricket is going that route of touching 300 runs every game, it just shows you the beauty of playing cricket around the world. It's so different. Every country, every nation brings its own quirks and that's the challenge that I love as a bowler, adapting to those conditions, trying to work out the best players and bringing my game towards them. So yeah, hopefully something that I still look to continue to do.
[Reporter:]
You all came in as the number one seed in this group. How disappointing is it not to make the super 8s and is this your last World Cup?
[Trent Boult:]
Didn't realize we were number one seed. I think T20 cricket anything can happen Obviously coming to the unknown against a Ugandan side Papua New Guinea I obviously haven't seen too much of them, but there's been some great upsets in this tournament I see Nepal unfortunately missed out by one run It shows you the closeness of this format and the quality that's in this in this World Cup So like I said, we're devastated to not qualify. We've been outplayed earlier in the tournament and yeah, we haven't qualified for good reason so it's unfortunate but that's how T20 cricket goes - speaking on behalf of myself this will be my last T20 World Cup so yeah that's all I have to say.
