It’s a situation seldom faced by major international sides in this modern era — touring a country in which not one of the seasoned squad has played before. And, until you’ve played at altitude on the hot, hard turf of the High Veldt, or experienced the coastal swing down by the wine country of Paarl — well, there’s nothing like being there to fully understand the diversity of conditions that South Africa has to offer.
How did the WHITE FERNS scout and prepare for such an unknown, ahead of touching down today for the historic series?
“We’re fortunate that our video analyst John Furlong has just recently been to South Africa with the BLACKCAPS, so he’s been able to fill us in a little bit on some of the places that we’re going to play,” says captain Suzie Bates.
“And some of us have been lucky to have played in England recently with overseas players who have toured South Africa, so we were able to get a little bit of insight from them on what it’s like.”
Haidee Tiffen can also offer her experiences — the coach played in South Africa at the 2005 World Cup, albeit at different venues to the ones the WHITE FERNS will face this time around. Assistant Coach Matthew Bell also toured South Africa with both the New Zealand Cricket Academy and New Zealand A teams during his career while recalled runmaker Sam Curtis, 30, has also had a preview, of sorts — as part of a school hockey tour to South Africa back in her teenage years.
But the big picture remains intact: this is a fresh tour of excitement and novelty, and all the challenges of adapting quickly to new environments.
“That’s why the 10-day lead in to our first one-dayer is important to us,” says Tiffen. “We need to acclimatise and get a feel for it.
“We’ve only ever had a chance to have a look at South Africa in a few isolated games at World Cups, which is quite different to playing a side across a series where you get a good look at each other’s strengths and weaknesses.
“They’re going to be a challenge in their own backyard, but equally we’re looking forward to getting on their turf. At the end of the day though, our focus is really on ourselves and I’m really confident we can be successful over here.”
Adding to the confidence quotient is that this is no ordinary early season mission — thanks to that great cricketing word, momentum.
Bates explains: “A couple of years ago, when we went to the West Indies in October 2014, I felt really short of cricket and I was a bit stressed about heading over to play the series [the West Indies ended up beating the WHITE FERNS 4-zip in the ODIs and drew the T20s with a tie].
“But this time it just feels like I’m keeping the ball rolling. It’s quite a different experience when you’ve been playing a lot. It’s a long time, a long winter when you haven’t been out in the middle, especially with batting.
“You can practise as much as you like, but being out in the middle, putting runs on the board — there is no substitute for playing cricket. It’s been great to have had regular cricket this year and now, to me, it just feels like summer is rolling on, rather than the start of a season.”
It’s the skipper’s first taste of South Africa after more than 10 years in the team, which just goes to underscore the historical significance of the event.
“All of us have been looking forward to a new place to visit, a new experience. And from an ICC World Championship perspective, this is probably the most important tour for us as we look to make sure we qualify for the World Cup next year. South Africa [5th on the table] is doing really well and we’re up there, too [one point ahead in fourth], but we need some good really good wins over here, and then to finish it off at home against Pakistan as well.”
Coach Tiffen says the tour will act as a “mini World Cup” given the schedule — an intense 50-over diet that came from “good communication with South Africa earlier this year. They put it to us whether we’d be open to playing seven one-dayers. We realised that would be great preparation for us, given it’s pretty much the kind of schedule we will face at the World Cup itself.
“So we jumped at the chance, and now we can really work out the combinations for players and provide opportunities for other players after those initial three IWC matches.”
