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Coaches divided on future of T20Is

After Trevor Bayliss suggested T20Is be scrapped, Mike Hesson says 20-over internationals are "huge" for smaller cricketing nations

New Zealand coach Mike Hesson says his England counterpart Trevor Bayliss's call to scrap T20 Internationals is simply unrealistic for smaller cricketing nations.

Bayliss caused a stir on Sunday by reiterating his view that T20Is shouldn’t be played at international level, with the showpiece World T20 the only exception.

"I haven't changed my opinion on it. I wouldn't play T20 internationals," Bayliss told Sky Sports after England defeated the Black Caps by two runs in Hamilton on Sunday.

"If we continue putting on so many games there'll be a certain amount of blowout with not just players but coaches as well.

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"If you want to play a World Cup every four years or whatever it is, maybe six months before you get the international teams and let them play some T20 cricket.

"But I'd just let the franchises play (beyond that)."

Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur expressed a similar view last year, suggesting T20Is don’t have the same context as the Test and 50-over formats.

But Hesson, whose side will face Australia in Wednesday's tri-series final after topping England on net run-rate, says international T20s are simply too commercially important to New Zealand.

"There's always a workload issue, I think that's fair, but there's also a revenue generation issue as well," he told reporters on Monday.

"In some countries that's not as big a deal but for New Zealand cricket, to get 35,000 people to Eden Park or whatever it was the other day is huge for us, huge for the game and huge for the promotion of the game.

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"And we certainly get great support for T20 Internationals over here."

The jam-packed international schedule has meant T20Is are often pushed down the priority list of international sides.

Australia's T20 captain Steve Smith, for example, hasn't featured in any of the 11 T20s his country has played since the 2016 World T20 due largely to tight turnarounds between, and in some cases overlapping, series.

Since Australia’s early exit from the 2016 WT20, Smith has played in two IPL campaigns and will return for a third in April. He was recently retained by Rajasthan Royals for record A$2.4 million for the upcoming edition of the IPL, which is held during Cricket Australia’s player leave period.

Hesson argues that every competitive international match has meaning.

"Too right they are," Hesson said. "Every international you play is incredibly meaningful.

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"You've got guys that only play T20 and that's their chance to play international cricket, so I think absolutely it's meaningful."

Since the first T20I was contested between New Zealand and Australia at Eden Park in 2005, the Black Caps have been among the most eager international sides in embracing the shortest format.

Only South Africa (who have played 47 T20Is at home) have hosted more matches than New Zealand (44) while, overall, only Pakistan have played more T20Is than the Black Caps.

After Martin Guptill passed his former Black Caps skipper Brendon McCullum on the all-time T20I run-scoring charts in Friday’s blockbuster clash with Australia, the two Kiwis are the only batsmen to have surpassed 2000 runs in T20Is.

The growing interest in domestic T20 leagues like the KFC Big Bash League and the IPL has led some, like Arthur, to suggest international T20s have become the poorer cousin.

After going to his first BBL game last summer, Arthur said: "It was an amazing atmosphere - it's show business, that reminded me of going to a basketball, it was brilliant.

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"Fifty-over cricket's got a definite role because of the World Cup, because of international rankings there's context.

"I do think, though, that Twenty20 cricket should become franchise dominated.

"I've never been a massive advocate of international Twenty20 cricket except a World Cup every two or three years, because that gets the best players together and they go against each other.

"International cricket belongs in the 50-over and Test cricket (formats) for me."

Trans-Tasman T20 Tri-Series

First T20I Australia beat New Zealand by seven wickets. Scorecard

Second T20I Australia beat England by five wickets. Scorecard

Third T20I Australia beat England by seven wickets. Scorecard

Fourth T20I New Zealand beat England by 12 runs. Scorecard

Fifth T20I Australia beat New Zealand by five wickets. Scorecard

Sixth T20I England beat New Zealand by 2 runs. Scorecard

Final Australia v NZ, Eden Park, February 21. Scorecard

Australia squad: David Warner (c), Aaron Finch (vc), Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Ben Dwarshuis, Travis Head, Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, D'Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa.

England squad: Eoin Morgan (c), Sam Billings, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Liam Dawson, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Dawid Malan, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, James Vince, David Willey, Mark Wood.

New Zealand squad: Kane Williamson (c), Tom Blundell, Trent Boult, Tom Bruce, Colin de Grandhomme, Martin Guptill, Anaru Kitchen, Colin Munro, Seth Rance, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, Ben Wheeler.