It’s likely Suzie Bates’s phone isn’t going to stop ringing anytime soon in Dunedin today.
The 28-year-old homegrown superstar overnight was announced as the 2016 Wisden Cricketers' Almanack’s Leading Woman Cricketer in the World — and she’s still taking it all in, amid a flood of congratulations from home and abroad.
Wisden introduced a women’s annual award just last year, but — like its longstanding men’s awards — the reverence for Wisden’s authority means it’s already considered one of the game’s most significant, widely-reported distinctions.
And, as editor Lawrence Booth said, “It needed something special to deny both [Australians] Meg Lanning and Ellyse Perry this award, and Bates’s all-round performances were precisely that.”
Lanning, Perry and Bates are the three leading runscorers in the overall ICC International Women’s Championship that launched in 2014. New Zealand’s own ‘southern star’ said she felt “very privileged” to be singled out for the honour at a time when women’s cricket is rapidly gaining momentum across the world.
“Honours like this are really about all the people who have helped you along the way, and I immediately think of ‘Shrimp’; and my mum and dad who travel everywhere to support me; and Warren Lees, who has always been a good mentor to me here in Dunedin.”
‘Shrimp’ is the late Mike Shrimpton, the 1960s/1970s Test player who went on to dedicate himself to helping New Zealand nurture its female stars.
He was the coach when the WHITE FERNS won the 2000 ICC Women’s World Cup — the landmark first (and so far only) time a New Zealand team had clinched a major ICC tournament title.
That was before Bates’s time — she was an impressionable 12-year-old, albeit it one who would debut for the Otago Sparks just two years later. But Shrimpton would never be far from the women’s game as a high performance coach for New Zealand Cricket and, in his mid-70s, was still coaching the Central Hinds in the domestic competitions.
When the much-loved Shrimpton passed away last year, it hit the world of New Zealand Cricket hard — none more so than all the WHITE FERNS whom he had mentored.
The saddening news came just as the 2015 team was headed for India, where they were about to play the first proper series between the two countries on Indian soil.
Haidee Tiffen, one of those whom Shrimpton had mentored as a player, had just picked up the reins as WHITE FERNS Head Coach.
India at home is never an easy proposition and their women’s side was led by class, hardened talents in Mithali Raj and sharp bowler Jhulan Goswami — together with an eager crop of emerging players and young spinners who fired up against the WHITE FERNS in Bengaluru.
After a runaway start from the touring New Zealanders, the One-Day series turned into a close-run contest. A record chase from India forced the five-match Series into a decider — then the hosts got up for a big final push to snatch the cup 3-2.
Settled in the captaincy, Suzie Bates had helmed the touring team well. She leads from the front, and averaged above 30 in that series — putting International Women’s Championship points in the bag from the opening wins.
IWC points count towards 2017 World Cup qualification, so were an important focus for Bates and Tiffen.
The classy opener had likewise ensured the team had gone 2-1 against the strong Englishwomen in their designated IWC matches at the start of 2015 — scoring her sixth One-Day International century in the first win at Mt Maunganui, in a particularly dominant win; then supporting Rachel Priest’s then-career best 96 in a nine-wicket drubbing that had stung England badly.
But both times, the WHITE FERNS had gone on to lose what was still a five-match series (no points riding on the last two games) — and losing is not what Bates is all about.
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Suzie Bates debuted for the WHITE FERNS when she was just 18, and, in the decade since, has steadily become the iconic star of the New Zealand game.
She is a double international — an Olympian with the Tall Ferns at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
She is southern and she is Ngai Tahu, and has been an almost constant presence in annual Otago and Maori sporting awards throughout her career as one of their most accomplished exports to New Zealand sport.
Bates scored her first ODI century before she had even turned 20.
By 2009, she was world number one — and smashing a WHITE FERNS record 168 off 105 balls to get New Zealand into a World Cup final (besides causing trouble with her pace bowling).
Four years later, the composed allrounder was the ICC World Cup 2013 Player of the Tournament. She was ICC’s women's ODI Player of the Year that year, too (all this before the Wisden honours came into being in 2014).
She was selected in the tournament team at this year’s World Twenty20. She was selected to captain a World XI at Lord’s against England, and had been the obvious choice to succeed retiring Aimee Mason as WHITE FERNS captain.
Wonderful moments, all of them. The list goes on. Her archive is impressive. But the historic struggle for the WHITE FERNS has been how to build a solid team around its standout players, and the captain invariably carried a lot on her shoulders.
That’s why 2015 was such a special year to Suzie Bates.
There were inklings of it when the side stood up together in those One-Day wins against England (then they went on to include a six-wicket Twenty20 victory in Whangarei).
But in India it really started to gel. There was the powerful top order where keeper-turned-opener Rachel Priest’s explosive ability to get big runs on the board complemented Bates’s calm, cool aggression. Amy Satterthwaite steadying the ship. Sophie Devine moving up the order to play the fearless, attacking, Brendon McCullum-like card. Morna Nielsen leading the way with the ball as one of the most consistent and economical spin bowlers anywhere in world cricket, Lea Tahuhu injecting pace, point panther Katie Perkins raising the bar high in the field and young players coming through with a truckload of energy.
“We have the core of an exciting new group now that started in India last year under Haidee Tiffen, and it’s very satisfying to be contributing to that,” says Bates, quite humbly.
India finished up with the WHITE FERNS winning their historic first series on Indian turf: they stormed back on the Twenty20 leg and clinched that trophy with two of the fastest fifties the world had ever seen — an 18-ball world record from Devine, then a 22-ball matchwinner from Priest.
It was a significant shift into a new gear for the team, and it was significant to Bates to have that level of support stepping up around her own role in the side.
“We’ve had a lot more stability. The group’s senior players and the support staff around me have settled, and that has helped me relax as captain, and I think that has helped me perform in general.
“That’s a credit to Haidee, too. She knows and trusts the players, trusts that we know what we are doing. That Indian tour really built our confidence.”
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The WHITE FERNS’ next assignment was an early season home series against Sri Lanka in October 2015 — again, an historic first, the IWC framework now ensuring that all the major international teams were engaging regularly in competition.
Bates made sure she was ready to hit the ground running in the cool days at Lincoln, dominating Sri Lanka to the tune of 258 runs from just four innings in a 5-0 ODI Series whitewash. New Zealand swept the Twenty20s, too; Bates averaged 52.50 in the three matches, finishing with the Player of the Series award.
A genuine allrounder and reliable fielder, her contribution with the ball also remains significant to the side, these days coming in as a handy change.
“I haven’t tinkered too much with my bowling. There are always improvements you can make technically, but I have learned to accept the action is what it is, and that my focus should be trying to put it in the right areas consistently — without over-complicating it with anything else.
"It’s the consistency of being ‘boring’ — not trying to bowl too fast, as much! That’s been working well for the last two years.”
The platform was laid for what would be an outstanding 2016 home series against world number ones Australia — and it’s worth noting that none of that was even considered for the Wisden honour, which only spans the 2015 calendar year.
The SBS Bank Otago Sparks captain finished as the second-highest scorer nationally in the 2015/16 domestic one-day competition: 495 runs at 61.87, as well as taking the most wickets for the Sparks (13), and notching her 100th game in blue and gold — scoring a century for them the day before, carrying her bat in Alexandra to win the game.
With a four off Broadmore, that's 100 off for 107 balls for @SuzieWBates, Otago Sparks an epic 175/3 v Central Hinds pic.twitter.com/gnyQyVudel
— WHITE FERNS (@WHITE_FERNS) January 3, 2016
After returning from playing for the Perth Scorchers midseason in the inaugural Big Bash and heading into WHITE FERNS mode, it was clear she was in scorching form.
She scored a century at Mt Maunganui to keep the WHITE FERNS in the Rose Bowl ODI Series against the stellar Australians, then drove the side to a T20 series victory in the TransTasman Trophy matches — right before the team headed away to the ICC World Twenty20 2016.
Bates reflects that the solid season “was probably a combination of quality rather than quantity in training, and just playing a lot more cricket — the volume of cricket across the year, with opportunities like playing in Perth and the ICC Women’s Championship.
“I guess that will sound ironic, but there’s nothing like time in the middle, and it made me feel more relaxed about it.
“It’s in playing, not in training, that you learn the most. I was in the privileged position of being able to give myself some time away from the game, and then, in training, working really hard, with a purpose. Rather than just going through the motions for long periods between competition. The outcome was that I felt fresher at the crease, mentally.”
In other words, she was able to operate like a full-time cricketer.
In India, a liberated Bates freed her arms at the top, the runaway leading runscorer of all teams in the Group stages (142 runs at 47, with a 116.39 strike rate) and outright owner of the 2016 tournament’s highest individual score (82) — the WHITE FERNS one of only two unbeaten teams before the knockouts.
They had again slaughtered Australia — the defending champions — along the way in one of the most keenly watched encounters of the tournament.
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Yes, it was all so bittersweet, in the end — knocked out in Mumbai by eventual first-time champions the West Indies.
However, Bates reflects that it was also "a different feeling from other world tournaments. I felt we really put our best foot forward, we were playing really good cricket and everyone felt really confident the whole week leading up to the semi-final.
“The West Indies played one of their best games, and we didn’t play a terrible game, but it felt like a few little things that needed to go our way, didn’t.
“Although we were absolutely gutted, ultimately it was not personally as disappointing as some World Cups in the past, where I’ve felt we haven’t turned up for those big games.”
So Bates is dwelling on the positives.
“I’m excited that the group is heading in the right direction, and that lots of players are contributing and getting recognition — to have four players in the tournament team illustrated that.”
Coach Haidee Tiffen shares that conviction, and could not have been more thrilled to see her captain’s steady impact recognised in clarion by Wisden.
‘‘Suzie is such a quality, world-class player,” says Tiffen.
“She has so deserved it. She has had a very rewarding year, and is feeling that she can play more freely. It’s wonderful to see.”
Bates, at 28, is “just stoked” that she has been able to live the dream.
“It has meant a lot to me personally — to be able to continue to play, and to contribute consistently to the team this season.
“A lot of WHITE FERNS used to retire at the age I am now, because it wasn’t a viable living. I look back at so many great players, the likes of Rebecca Rolls and Haidee, and I think it was sad that they retired so young.
“So I feel very privileged to be part of a new era for the game — because whether it was going to be in basketball or cricket, playing sport full time was always what I wanted to do.”
Yes, the memory of Mike Shrimpton did have something to do with her storming 2015.
“When we went to India mid-year, when we had just lost Mike, it was after I had worked pretty hard with him for two years. It was nice to go on and have that rewarding season — to be consistent with the bat, like he always demanded.
“Now I’m looking forward to seeing where we can take the WHITE FERNS from here.”
The WHITE FERNS next appear together in South Africa in October, in the meantime Bates and teammates Sara McGlashan, Sophie Devine and Rachel Priest will be in action in England's new Big Bash-style T20 league.
