It’s official: the New Zealand WHITE FERNS are off to the 2017 ICC Women’s World Cup in England and Wales in June/July next year.
Thursday’s fourth ODI win over Pakistan provided the last two ICC qualification points required to ensure our exciting premier women’s team gained direct entry to the big event — bypassing the Qualifying Tournament that awaits the majority of the international competition, early next year. WHITE FERNS captain Suzie Bates tells us what’s in store next, after the side wraps up the current Series with Pakistan.
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I’m very happy to finally be able to say we are off to the World Cup!
It shows we’ve been competing really well and, although England and Australia will finish above us in the IWC points table, we beat both those sides during this IWC Women’s Championship. It wouldn’t have been that enjoyable for us to go to a Qualifying Tournament, so it’s nice to have our flight booked to England!
Suzie Bates leads her team off the field. Image: Photosport
It’s been a solid couple of years for us and the side is getting more depth, now. Our approach has been pretty similar both this season and last, but different people have dominated. We’ve had lots of players step up at different times. That’s the most pleasing thing for me. We’ve had our top order dominate both seasons — for example Rachel Priest against Sri Lanka last year and Amy Satterthwaite and Katey Martin this year against Pakistan have been really impressive. Same with the ball: we’ve had different groups take wickets and perform, so it’s exciting to be in this position going into a World Cup.
From my overall experience in the WHITE FERNS, we’ve always had a really strong top 15 players in the country but the depth has not been that strong below that. There are certain areas around the country that have been traditionally stronger than others, and what we hope for now is to see more and more women’s club competitions springing up across New Zealand to help strengthen that domestic game. I hope that girls are seeing how exciting women’s international cricket is and want to play. You look at women’s international cricket around the world now and you will see some pretty athletic, dynamic, powerful players playing an exciting brand of T20 and one-day cricket.
Amy Satterthwaite and Suzie Bates discuss tactics. Image: Photosport
Although we’ve tried to play each Series as it has come, we do think about the World Cup, and we have been planning our roles. It’s always in the conversations. As much as we go out there to perform on the day, it’s also all about how we’re going to go about our business in England in June 2017.
We had seven One-Dayers in South Africa, and five here against Pakistan, and to have 12 ODIs back to back has been really good for this group. Plus, to be able to bring in the likes of young Amelia Kerr, and give Hannah Rowe an opportunity with the new ball — things we haven’t been able to do in the past, it gives them a valuable taste of international cricket. It allows us to just see where we are at as a wider group, and if frontline players get injured, we know we’ve got players to step in and fill those roles. That’s all part of planning a good campaign.
Holly Huddleston and Suzie Bates. Image: Photosport
There’s some new challenges, now, for some of the players in this team. We’ve got our domestic competition starting next weekend, and that’s always busy, three games in three days; then we have six of seven players heading off to the Women’s BBL 02 in Australia — so in between the New Zealand competition, they’ll take part in that, and so there are going to be some busy women! But it’s just brilliant for international players to be able to go over and get more cricket, to be able to learn from different coaches, and get access to all Australia’s resources in addition to our own.
Then, we’ll come back together after our domestic season for our home and away Series against Australia — and you couldn’t ask for a better lead-in than that to the World Cup than to play six matches against the current world champions. We get three One-Dayers and three Twenty20s, and then we’ll start our training phase or build-up for the World Cup itself.
We have, in the past, gone into most of our winter tours underdone — you can train as much as you like indoors, do all the skills, but there’s nothing like being out in the middle.
The WHITE FERNS celebrate a wicket. Image: Photosport
For bowlers, it’s bowling on grass and getting some rhythm; for batters it’s scoring runs regularly. We have got a lot of players in the group now who have the opportunity to play 10 months of the year. It’s almost going to be a case of us having to learn to be away from home so much — having this much cricket has never been our problem in the past!
We’ve always been looking to play more, but now we’re aware it’s about balancing what we are doing and making sure we are still mentally fresh when we come together as a group. International cricket is the main priority. In the meantime, we look forward to wrapping up our Series with Pakistan Women, and thank you all for the wonderful support that has been flowing through to the team. We’re very proud to represent you.
