More than two years have passed since Blair Tickner last played for New Zealand, two years in which his life was thrown into chaos, his career into doubt, his family into crisis. “Obviously people haven’t seen me as much, but I feel like I’ve been doing all the right things for the last two years,” he said of his call-up, one game into the ODI series against England. “So nothing’s really changed. I’m still the same guy.” This is not true. So much has changed, and he is not the same guy.
In May 2024, while Tickner was in England playing for Derbyshire, his wife was diagnosed with leukaemia. He received the call just before the start of a County Championship game against Sussex, but because the toss had already taken place and he had been named in the XI the ECB refused Derbyshire permission to replace him, despite their opponents having agreed that they could do so.
