New Zealand will witness another step forward for women’s cricket today when the WHITE FERNS meet Pakistan in a ground-breaking Twenty20 International in Nelson this afternoon.
The 3pm match at Saxton Oval will be the first occasion that all three umpires — two on-field umpires and the third umpire — are female, with South African-born New Zealand resident Diana Venter set to make her on-field debut in Women’s Twenty20 Internationals.
Venter will join New Zealand’s most experienced female International umpire, Kathy Cross (of Wellington) and Kim Cotton in the first all-woman appointment to an international match.
Venter grew up playing cricket in the backyard with her brothers and cousins, and went on to become a national powerlifting champion in her weight category.
She went on to play, coach, then umpire cricket in Finland, before moving to New Zealand in 2004. More recently, as a member of Auckland Cricket’s exchange programme with Cricket Victoria, she became the first woman to umpire a Melbourne men’s Premier Grade match in Australia.
Aucklander Venter, and Cotton, from Canterbury, were earlier this year named for the first time in New Zealand Cricket’s High Performance Umpire Reserve Panel for the 2016/2017 season, while Cross has umpired extensivly in New Zealand and internationally, two years ago becoming the first woman to be appointed to an International Cricket Council umpiring panel.
Cotton began her umpiring career in Timaru in 2010, following a playing career that started with men’s club cricket in Nelson and included a stint in England with a season representing Kent.
Since moving to Christchurch, where she practises as a solicitor, Cotton has regularly umpired premier men’s club cricket and, for the past three seasons, has stood in NZC’s national Women’s Under 21 Tournament.
Like Venter, Cotton has participated in several trans-Tasman umpiring exchanges, the pair officiating together at Premier men’s grade level in Melbourne earlier this year.
Entry to the WHITE FERNS’ only home T20 International this season is free, and will also be the first time that New Zealand and Pakistan Women have ever met in a bilateral Twenty20 Series.
The countries have previously played each other in T20s at ICC World Twenty20 tournaments only, in 2010 (in the Caribbean) and 2014 (in Bangladesh). The WHITE FERNS won on both occasions, looking to continue an unbeaten record today.
The match will be live-streamed FREE at www.blackcaps.co.nz from 3pm.
