Mark Chapman has given up his New Zealand Cricket central contract so he can play in Australia’s Big Bash this summer, and the move has handed Northern Districts fast bowler Matt Fisher the first central contract of his career.
The change was confirmed on Tuesday 8 September, when RNZ reported that the 32 year old Auckland batter had moved to a casual playing agreement. That keeps him inside the Black Caps programme and available for selection, while freeing him to take up a Big Bash deal. The men’s Big Bash starts in early December. No club had been named for him at the time of writing.
Chapman was quick to make clear that he is not stepping back from New Zealand duty. “The upcoming India series is one all us players are really excited for, and I’m committed wholeheartedly to performing in that series,” he said in a statement.
The timing suits him. India’s visit carries 12 matches across all three formats, the most internationals New Zealand Cricket has ever scheduled for an inbound tour. It opens with a T20 international at Hagley Oval in Christchurch on 22 October and finishes with the second Test, also at Hagley Oval, which ends on 1 December, according to the schedule New Zealand Cricket released in June. The same schedule has the Black Caps’ next home white-ball matches, against Sri Lanka, starting in mid-January. Chapman was already a white-ball specialist. When the 2026-27 central contract list was announced in June, New Zealand Cricket said he and Michael Bracewell had both asked not to be ranked in Test cricket. The two Tests that close the tour were never likely to involve him.
He now joins four other casually contracted players, Finn Allen, Lockie Ferguson, Adam Milne and Tim Seifert. New Zealand Cricket confirmed that group on 7 July, noting that the four brought more than 400 international caps between them and a growing list of franchise experience around the world. Seifert explained the appeal at the time. “The casual contract allows the flexibility to play in some of the different leagues around the world, while still remaining part of the BLACKCAPS programme,” he said.
For Chapman, the decision closes a chapter that began less than four years ago. New Zealand Cricket gave him his first central contract in December 2022, filling the place left vacant by Martin Guptill’s departure the month before. At that point he had played 27 games for New Zealand, 22 T20 internationals and five ODIs. RNZ now puts his tally at 150 white-ball internationals for New Zealand, which means more than 120 of them have come while he held a central deal.
The traffic between the two kinds of contract runs both ways. Devon Conway returned to the central list in June after two seasons on a casual agreement, and head coach Rob Walter said then that it was “great to have a player of his calibre back on the central contract list, especially with the amount of exciting cricket coming up.” When the casual list was confirmed in July, New Zealand Cricket also noted that Jimmy Neesham had moved to a domestic contract with Auckland, and that Kane Williamson had come off the casual list after retiring from international cricket.
Few Black Caps have taken a more unusual road into the side than Chapman. He was born in Hong Kong, went to King’s College, and played 21 internationals for his country of birth before switching to New Zealand. On his ODI debut for Hong Kong, against the United Arab Emirates in November 2015, he made 124 not out from 116 balls and became the first Hong Kong player to score an ODI century, according to his Wikipedia profile. He made his T20 international debut for New Zealand against England in February 2018, and he became the first player to score half-centuries in T20 internationals for two different countries. His unbeaten 104 against Pakistan in April 2023 levelled that series at two games each. He was part of the squad that reached the final of this year’s T20 World Cup.
The two men at the centre of this week’s reshuffle were both in the thick of it in the Caribbean in July. In the fourth ODI against the West Indies at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown on 19 July, Fisher took three wickets for 40 runs from eight overs as the home side was bowled out for 188, and Chapman top-scored with 80 from 82 balls as New Zealand got home by a single wicket, according to the match record of that tour. The win clinched the series, which New Zealand eventually took three games to two.
Fisher, 26, was born in Auckland and holds a law degree from the University of Otago. He made his Test debut against Zimbabwe in August 2025, played his first T20 international against Bangladesh in April this year, and made his ODI debut in Georgetown on 11 July, so he has played all three formats for New Zealand inside a year. When he was called up for that tour, New Zealand Cricket noted a List A record of 43 wickets from 25 matches at an average of 26. Walter said at the time that “He bowls with good pace and has been working hard on his variations to ensure he can bowl at different stages of the innings.”
Selector Gavin Larsen tied Fisher’s contract to the Test cricket ahead. “With the heavy schedule of cricket coming up, notably the Test matches against India, Australia, and Sri Lanka, we know we’ll need good depth in our fast-bowling stocks,” he said. “Matt is someone able to bowl that express pace which is extremely valuable to the balance of any side, so we’re excited to have him on the central contract list.”
Fisher’s contract keeps the list at 20 players for the 2026-27 season, which runs from 1 August 2026 to 31 July 2027. Chapman, meanwhile, is available to face India through October and November before he crosses the Tasman for the Big Bash. With Chapman the casual list now has five names, all of them white-ball players, and the franchise leagues are not getting any smaller.
Is a casual contract the right way to keep players like Mark Chapman involved with the Black Caps, or is New Zealand cricket losing too much to the franchise leagues? Tell us what you think in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
Leave a Reply