Opting out of IPL auction was difficult, spending time at home was important: Jamieson

Last year, Jamieson represented Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the IPL. He was not retained by the franchise, however, he was expected to go for big bucks in this year's auction. 

"Yeah, look, there were a couple of things for me. Firstly, after the last 12 months, it's had its challenges with MIQs (managed isolation and quarantine) and bubbles and spending a fair amount of time in that sort of set-up.

It was important for me, when I look at the schedule coming up over the next 12 months to try and find six weeks or eight weeks where I can spend some time at home," ESPNcricinfo quoted Jamieson as saying. 

"The second thing for me was, reflecting over the last 12-24 months and understanding that I'm very young in my [international] career and only two years in, that I wanted to have time to work on my game.

I guess I didn't really feel like I was where I wanted to be and if I want to compete for spots in the New Zealand sides moving forward across all three formats, I actually need to spend time working on my game and not just trying to play the whole time. Yeah, for me it was just about time at home and just time to work on my game," he added.

Jamieson also said that opting out of the auction was a difficult decision, but he hopes to play in the tournament in the coming years. 

"I guess it was a difficult decision initially. I sat with it for a fair while, and it was kind of lucky I had a couple of months in bubbles to sit in my room and have a think, but once I'd made the decision, it was a bit of a weight off my shoulder in a way, in terms of just focusing on myself and trying to get better," said Jamieson. 

"I'm still pretty young, I still think I'm young at 27 and I've still got a few years ahead, so this is just for this year and looking at what the next 12 months will look like, and hopefully moving forward there will be more opportunities to try and dip my toes into that environment," he added. 

Last year, Jamieson was picked up by RCB for INR 15 crore. This year, the mega auction would be held in Bengaluru on February 12-13.