No regrets: Carey content after giving up CA contract

Nicola Carey says she has no regrets about her decision to turn down a Cricket Australia contract earlier this year, as she throws herself into a busy summer of domestic cricket.

Carey raised eyebrows in April when it was revealed she had opted against a lucrative national deal.

The 30-year-old had held a CA contract since 2018, but instead opted to take a Cricket Tasmania contract and spend a full preseason at home in Hobart in favour of touring the United Kingdom with either Australia or Australia A.

It was a call that came after a period that saw Carey spend plenty of time on the road with the Australian team but struggle to earn a consistent place in the best XI of the world's top-ranked team.

Since the start of 2022 Carey featured in nine of 33 games Australia played between the home Ashes and the home ODIs against Pakistan in January, before she missed selection altogether for the T20 World Cup in South Africa.

Those commitments also restricted the amount of state cricket the 30-year-old was available to play with Tasmania, and the lack of match time was the leading factor in Carey's decision.

More than six months on, Carey said while it was a tough call, she knew it was the right one.

"I had some really good chats with (national selector Shawn Flegler) and I think that was really positive," Carey told cricket.com.au.

"Ultimately I'm really happy with my decision to stay at home and get that bulk training and play some consistent cricket and I've got no regrets there.

"I did have a good hard think about it and Flegs was great.

"He gave me some time to think about it as well, which I really appreciated.

"It's never an easy decision to make, I had a great few years in the Australian squad and they're going amazing at the minute.

"It's a really tough squad to get into and a really great group of girls as well ... so not an easy decision, but certainly one that I'm happy with.

"It was really nice to spend bulk time at home and work on a few different things - not major things, just working on a few different things with the ball and little things with the bat as well."

Carey currently has her attention on the Hurricanes' late push for the WBBL finals.

After missing the first few games of the tournament with a quad injury she has steadily built into the tournament, scoring 165 runs in eight innings at a strike rate of 109 and taking 10 wickets at an average of 22.

"It's been really up and down sometimes (but) that's T20 for you though, isn't it?" Carey said.

"One game you'll get hit for 1000 and then one game you might not get hit for too many.

"So it's been a bit up and down, which makes sense and it reflects the team performances as well.

"There's lots of positives that we can take as a team and plenty to work on as well."

Carey said she was not sparing much thought at present towards the possibility of one-day returning to the green and gold.

Rather, she will turn her attention to a full season of domestic one-day cricket – once the WBBL wraps up, Carey will be playing a key role in Tasmania's bid for a third-straight Women's National Cricket League title.

"I haven't really given (playing for Australia again) a lot of thought to be fair," she said.

"When I made the decision it was all about playing more cricket.

"And understandably it's really hard to get into that team and get a game, because they've been ridiculously successful, which has been awesome for Australian cricket.

"But I'm playing consistent playing games ... which has been really nice, so I'm happy with where that's at.

"I'll get to play every game of WNCL which I really enjoy, I love getting back and playing with the Tigers girls, we've got a great bunch of girls and I'm really looking forward to playing a full season there."

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