The large portion of the joy that comes with following kiwi sport at the moment are the people, the athletes who do what they do. There's no theme that I repeat with greater enthusiasm throughout the Niche Cache's pages than the genuine nature of our kiwi athletes, which has often been the case as it's just who we are as kiwis, but the level of excellence now combined with that kiwi nature is very fun to somehow be a part of.

It's easy to spot who my other kiwi favourites are, mainly because they'll do something super nice or weird like Steven Adams' moustache grooming shenanigans. Kane Williamson is very much one of these characters who combines cricketing excellence with a very mellow personality, Steve Hansen-like humour and he oozes swag.

Williamson was recently named Wisden's Leading Cricketer In The World. Think about this list of blokes who have won the award since 2003: Ricky Ponting, Shane Warne, Andrew Flintoff, Muttiah Muralitharan, Jacques Kallis, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Kumar Sangakkara, Michael Clarke, Dale Steyn and Kaptain Kane. I'm aware of cricket's history, of great players who have paved this path for our modern cricketers but that list of cricketers symbolizes the generation of cricketers who I fell in love with, so for Williamson to join such company is all about them warm fuzzies.

What's left to be said about Williamson? Ah, nothing, not once you've read this from my comrade the Wildcard about Williamson's 2015.

As folk tend to do, despite everyone preaching equality, Wisden's Leading Woman Cricketer in the World wasn't as celebrated. Of course, this award had to go to a kiwi athlete who follows the same recipe as our other fabulous athletes, combining excellence with our down to Earth kiwi nature, who like Williamson is the leader of women's cricket in Aotearoa, is the face of the White Ferns on a global scale and is now the face of women's cricket in general.

Suzie Bates won the Leading Woman Cricketer in the World in its second running, Australia's Meg Lanning won it last year for her 2014 campaign. Wisden states that the award is "guided by statistics rather than governed by them" so before I get into some of Bates' numbers from 2015, allow me to continue to spread the warm fuzzies throughout Aotearoa on this gloomy Sunday. 

Women's cricket is on the rise and it's Australia and Aotearoa who are at the front of the pack. While England and Australia enjoy the Ashes and West Indies won the Women's World T20, Lanning and Bates are the first two Leading Woman Cricketers in the World. Right now though, with women's cricket nearing lift off for a flight into the mainstream, Bates is women's cricket, a responsibility that could sit heavily on the shoulders of some but the way in which Bates has led this White Ferns team shows that she is perfectly suited to being a leader at this level. 

If this was a movie and it could very well be, we got a cheeky dose of foreshadowing prior to the World T20 getting underway. Bates featured in a Nissan commercial with Andre Russell and Rohit Sharma - who just happen to be two of the world's best T20 players - where she was the female representative in a global commercial ahead of a global tournament.

Women's cricket (funnily enough) is very similar to men's cricket in that there's no shortage of superstars. Australia have a few in Lanning and Elyse Perry and West Indies have Stafanie Taylor, but they weren't in that commercial, nope, it was Bates. Nissan and whoever else, had chosen Bates while our male cricketers, Williamson included haven't quite hit those heights despite a nice Tommy Hilfiger campaign.

When I think about women's cricket, I tend to operate looking forward. I can feel the momentum towards the women's game and I've only followed it closely since mid-way through last year. The first Women's Big Bash League, some funky home series' for the White Ferns and the WWT20 ensured that women's cricket had some buzz around it, yet I'm thinking forward, what's next?

Around the same time that Wisden's awards were made public, news came of overseas players being named in England's Women's Super League. The England and Wales Cricket Board will host a domestic T20 competition, starting on July 30 and ending with a finals day on August 21 in which the Lancashire Thunder, Loughborough Lightning, Southern Vipers, Surrey Stars, Western Storm and Yorkshire Diamonds will compete. 

Obviously this is awesome, anything to do with more women's cricket is great. What's better is that each team will be allowed three overseas players and that Bates leads a nice crop of White Ferns. Bates will be joined by Sara McGlashan at the Southern Vipers, Rachel Priest will rep the Western Storm while Sophie Devine was signed by Loughborough. This will be another opportunity for Bates and a few of our White Ferns to show off their cricketing ability in a country that has a strong tradition in women's cricket and along with Australia is probably leading the way in what they offer women's cricket.

This is probably the right time to state that there should be women's Test cricket. Australia and England play their Ashes while our White Ferns (and the rest of the women's teams) run through a diet of limited overs cricket, which is a bit dumb but we're getting there. T20 cricket has its place in the cricketing landscape; using T20 cricket to bring in new fans and to offer more competition/opportunities in the women's game is evidence of this.

A lot of this stems from my desire to see Bates play Test cricket, along with our other great White Ferns. With that being said, Bates is pretty handy at T20 cricket and even though she won the award for 2015, Bates has already started to build her case for 2016, statistically at least. Bates has played eight T20 internationals this year and hasn't scored below 12 in any of those games, the 12 came in the WWT20 semi-final loss to West Indies which is why their lost was so stink as Bates saved her worst effort for the biggest game. 

Bates' run to start 2016 included a series against Australia in which she scored 33, 54 and 54 through three T20's. The Ferns then went to India where Bates continue to score runs for fun with 37, 82, 23, 29 and that 12. 

Bates has only played three ODI's in 2016, three ODI's against Australia in which she scored 43, 61 and 110. 

Bates' 2016 has so far consistent of 11 games (eight T20's, three ODI's), including a century, four 50s and not one single-digit score. That's her 2016, which isn't even halfway through and wasn't even considered in Bates' winning of the Leading Cricketer award, her 2015 was pretty handy as well though.

2015 saw Bates score 585 runs and average 48.75 in ODI's, throw in 13 wickets at 21.00 with the ball for good measure. She started on fire with 106 against England in February, before enduring a 'slump' which saw her 0, 39, 7, 18, 28 and 1. That score of 1 came against India in Bangalore on July 1 and from that point, Bates led the White Ferns from the front with scores of 59, 27, 42, 38, 70*, 80 and 70*. 

Bates wasn't even that good in T20 cricket through 2015, relative speaking as she averaged 26 with the bat and 33.66 with the ball in eight games. We can however see a similar trend between the two formats for Bates, which should scare the cricketing world, especially those in England ahead of the Super League. Bates was up and down in T20's to start 2015, scoring 3, 33, 7 and 0 but in India (just as she'd done in ODI's) Bates hit 34 in their last match of the Indian tour. Bates then finished 2015 with a 36 and 69, which means that Bates' epic run of double-digit scores in T20's goes all the way back to July 15, 2015, stretching through 11 T20 games.

Bates is of course the skipper of the White Ferns and if we're going to wonder about some of the most influential leaders in kiwi sport then Bates has to be part of that discussion. That our two cricketing leaders are also now Leading Cricketers understandably has a profound impact on either team's fortunes, in typical kiwi fashion both Bates and Williamson are 'follow me' leaders who first and foremost do their job with bat or ball, just how we like it.

Thank you Suzie Bates for playing your role in the rise of women's cricket, for your contributions to the White Ferns and leading this highly talented Ferns team. Thanks for being a world-class kiwi athlete who makes us proud with your sporting excellence as much as being just like us.