Aotearoa's White Ferns have had their central contracts dished out and after a hugely disappointing World Cup campaign, this contract list highlights why the future's still bright. And why that World Cup campaign was disappointing as the talent is there and the group had been playing together for decent period of time. These 15 players will form the core of the White Ferns over the next 12 months and there's every chance that they will stick together, building towards another crack at the next World Cup.

As always, Amelia Kerr grabs all the headlines and all you've got to do is imagine being a professional athlete at 16-years-old and yeah, pretty damn cool right? As long as Kerr is delivering her leg-spinning goods, she will be in the White Ferns mix and while it's great to have such a prodigious young talent, the Niche Cache is here to shed light on other youngsters and dig deeper into this White Ferns contract list.

Gone from last year's contracts are Morna Nielsen, Samantha Curtis and Liz Perry. Nielsen has endured a fairly dramatic fall (she may have switched focus away from cricket so fair paly) as it wasn't long ago that Nielsen was partnering Leigh Kasperek in a glorious spin-duo for the White Ferns and Nielsen was one of a few kiwis to play in the Women's Big Bash League earlier this year. Her last ODI was in November last year and Nielsen's spinning spot has effectively been taken by Kerr, with the leg-spin of Kerr offering a more attacking weapon in conjunction with Kasperek's accuracy.

Curtis is a 31-year-old veteran, who last played for Aotearoa in the Rose Bowl earlier this year where she played two games, scoring 3 and 14. Perry is also an experienced cricketer who was dismissed for a duck in her last ODI, also against Australia in the Rose Bowl and before that, Perry had scores of 2, 12 and 0 in three T20I against Australia.

Maddy Green is a 24-year-old batter who didn't get too many opportunities to prove her worth at the World Cup as she was batting down the order (only batted once in three games). Green's averaging 10.54 in ODIs, but did feature in three WC games and it appears as though giving Green a contract over either Curtis or Perry is a wise move to bring through a younger tinge to the contracted list.

Joining Green and Kerr in coming into the contracted list is Anna Peterson, another spinner. Peterson is 27-years-old and made her debut back in 2012, averaging 17.50 with her offies and this gives Aotearoa a stacked group of spinners, co-including with stacked group of seamers and batters; a fabulous group of cricketers. The prospect of Peterson, Kasperek, Kerr and Erin Bermingham forming a spin quartet or at the very least pushing each other to perform as they compete for spots will see them all improve, thus giving Aotearoa a low key dynamic spinning group.

The same can be said for the seamers because Hannah Rowe has held on to her contract and understandably so, after the 20-year-old seamer was one of few White Ferns who performed strongly at the World Cup. Rowe played two WC games and finished with 3/22 and 2/30 in those two games, which when combined with Lea Tahuhu and Holly Huddleston, gives Aotearoa a hostile group of seamers. Don't sleep on 22-year-old Thamsyn Netwon there either as she will be pushing for a consistent spot in the White Ferns over the next 12 months and with Newton averaging 23.55 and Rowe averaging 30 in ODIs, we've got plenty of depth in the bowling stable.

Most of the regulars feature in the batting side of things; Suzie Bates, Amy Satterthwaite, Sopie Devine, Katey Martin, Katie Perkins and Rachel Priest.

Apparently the White Ferns are off to the United Arab Emirates soon where they'll face Pakistan and this will provide us with an interesting opportunity to gauge coach Haidee Tiffen's thinking. Tiffen could opt to go young and ensure that the likes of Kerr, Rowe, Green, Newton and Kerr get plenty of game time. With the UAE's conditions in mind, we can expect to see that spinning quartet selected and the opportunity for Kasperek, Peterson, Kerr and Bermingham to bowl in favourable conditions will be crucial in their development.

Peace and love 27.

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