A Deep Dive Into Aotearoa White Ferns Talent Identification
As Aotearoa's White Ferns tune up for their intriguing series against England, they will again be tasked with the balance of relying on the senior world-class players and getting the most out of the young group plugging holes in the squad. The only issue here is that the White Ferns have struggled to grab a win against the top-tier teams in either T20I or ODI cricket, let alone competing for series wins and despite struggling for a few years now there doesn't seem to be any deep inquiry into this dip.
The results and glaring lack of runs or wickets is one thing. Beneath the radar there has been a consistent record of strange selections and a wonky development pipeline that lacks focus. A good place to start are the Development Contracts brought in by NZC. One would assume that these contracts are used to provide future White Ferns players with financial support and security, along with the highest level of training to best prepare these wahine for international cricket. At the time, these players were described as 'eight of New Zealand's most promising women's players'.
2020 Development Contracts: Bella Armstrong, Skye Bowden, Rebecca Burns, Eden Carson, Katie Gurrey, Fran Jonas, Jacinta Savage, Jess Watkin.
Despite new players being introduced to the White Ferns last summer and for this series in England, only one of those eight development players has been called up to play for the White Ferns since receiving their development contract. Teenage spinner Fran Jonas is clearly a talented spinner and made her debut vs England, her two ODI games for Aotearoa vs England yielded 0 wickets @ 6.80rpo. With Amelia Kerr taking time out of the game, there was a clear opening for Jonas to get further development opportunities in England. Instead, Leigh Kasperek is the only spinner while as you’ll read below Anna Peterson isn’t required.
As for the other seven players identified by NZC as being in the tier below White Ferns, none of them have even been in the mix. Bella Armstrong and Jacinta Savage are seam bowlers who can also bat, yet when Rosemary Mair was ruled out via injury it was Molly Penfold who was called up. Katie Gurrey has legit set up her whare at the top of the run-scoring charts in the last five years, which resulted in her making her WF debut in early 2019. Last summer Gurrey had a slightly down season compared to her previous mahi and yet Gurrey still finished 6th in Super Smash runs and 9th in Hallyburton-Johnstone Shield runs.
Jess Watkin has also played for the WF before getting that illustrious development contract last year. Watkin's solid all-round work was headlined by being the only player apart from Sophie Devine with a HBJ Shield strike-rate over 100. Gurrey and Watkin were both overlooked for this squad to play against England.
Skye Bowden barely played last summer, Rebecca Burns wasn't overly flash and I've got Eden Carson as being just as exciting as Jonas in the young spinner department but she - like Jonas and any other teenager - needs repetitions in the domestic landscape. Regardless of the how close all these players are to WF selection, they were in the group that NZC identified as deserving this contract and only one was called upon to represent Aotearoa in a summer where the WF weren't very competitive.
Instead of selecting their players on development contracts, Brooke Halliday and Claudia Green received call ups. Halliday was promoted during the summer while Green is a seamer selected for the England series with the common factor here being that they did something decent in two warm up games against England for the 'New Zealand 11'. These were certified warm up games, with both teams playing more than 11 players and given that England lost the second game before smoking the WF; it's debatable how hard England were playing as they were warm up games after all.
In the NZ 11 team's win, Halliday scored 79 and Green took 5w @ 5.60rpo. Halliday was automatically promoted to the WF and Green's bowling performance was directly referred to in the announcement of her selection. Neither Halliday or Green were part of the development contracted group that was hand-picked by NZC - selected for their work in a warm up game.
Which ever way you want to slice this, something is wonky with the talent identification. Halliday and Green may be better WF prospects than anyone else, yet they weren't actually identified for the development contracts. I find the reactionary selections of Halliday and Green strange considering that various decision-makers thought there were eight players better suited to getting development contracts.
Now we have Molly Penfold coming in for Rosemary Mair. Penfold was described as having 'raw, fast bowling talent' and that's exciting. Penfold played her first season of domestic cricket last summer with 0w @ 8.20rpo in 6 overs of Super Smash bowling and 5w @ 31.80avg/4.86rpo in 31ov of HBJ Shield. According to the NZC archives, Penfold has bowled 37 overs in domestic cricket and that warrants a WF call up.
Penfold may be rapid, although any raw-speedster in the Aotearoa women's landscape would stick out like no-masker in a supermarket right now and such talent would definitely warrant a development contract. Penfold didn't dominate the domestic circuit though and in her best format of HBJ Shield, five Auckland seamers were ranked ahead of Penfold. One of those Auckland seamers was Jesse Prasad who finished 3rd for all HBJ Shield bowlers and 8th in the Super Smash.
At this point, getting a development contract appears more of a hindrance to WF selection than a benefit. Players on that development contract list and other young-ish players who are performing well in domestic cricket are watching players get WF selections having barely played domestic cricket or based of a couple good games. While this all falls under the 'White Ferns woes' umbrella, as someone who loves a development pipeline; I can't figure this out and it's more confusing than anything.
What about Jess McFadyen who was called up to tour England?
2018 HBJ Shield: 129 runs @ 64.50avg/68.25sr.
2019 HBJ Shield: 400 runs @ 66.66avg/72.72sr - 4th.
2020 HBJ Shield: 397 runs @ 49.62avg/69.89sr - 3rd.
McFadyen didn't get a development contract last year despite clearly being the best up and coming wicket-keeper/batswoman. McFadyen has performed consistently over multiple seasons and that seems like a far better recipe for international success than minimal domestic cricket. On both sides of that coin, the talent ID is wonky as McFadyen was obviously worthy of a development contract and at the same time is a reminder of the need to brew talent in the domestic landscape.
McFadyen didn't get any WF opportunities as Bernadine Bezuidenhout and Natalie Dodd took the back up W/K roles to veteran Katey Martin. It is here we enter the murky zone of a cluster of Aotearoa's best cricketers not playing for the WF, while under-performing younger players enjoy steady opportunities. Dodd, Kate Ebrahim, Frances Mackay, Holly Huddleston, Katie Perkins and Anna Peterson have consistently been the best players in Aotearoa over the last few years, yet they are deemed surplus to requirements.
This was most evident last summer when the likes of Mackay and Ebrahim were dominant for Canterbury in their Super Smash and HBJ Shield championship campaigns. Mackay and Ebrahim were both deployed in obtuse roles for the WF, which is in direct contrast to the coaching philosophy of allowing players to be themselves, do what they do best in positions they are comfortable with.
Ponder these stats and notes for Aotearoa's WF since the start of 2017...
Amy Satterthwaite, Suzie Bates and Sophie Devine are the only players who have scored 1000+ ODI runs. 10 players have 200+ ODI runs and Perkins is the only player apart from the top-three with an average over 30. Perkins would be highly valuable in a World Cup campaign, yet she's been in and out of squads which is super niggly.
Eight bowlers have 10+ ODI wickets in this period. Holly Huddleston is 4th with 25w @ 27.16avg and the only seamer ahead of her is Lea Tahuhu with 31w @ 33.7avg. Huddleston is now out of favour despite also finishing 2nd in Super Smash wickets last summer and having the second-best T20I bowling record during this period of 9w @ 17.33avg/5.77rpo.
Big ups to spinner Anna Peterson who has the following record since the start of 2017...
ODI: 17w @ 20.11avg/3.63rpo.
T20I: 17w @ 21.05avg/6.75rpo.
Peterson has the second best spin record during this period of ODI cricket and second best T20I record. Peterson took 13w @ 17avg/3.65rpo in last summer's HBJ Shield and 9w @ 18.155avg/5.38rpo, with a whopping Super Smash batting strike-rate of 131.53. All of which screams out 'talent!' yet Peterson is also out of favour despite the WF only taking one frontline spinner to England.
I believe the most important thing for the White Ferns is the World Cup on Aotearoa soil next year. The veteran group of Peterson, Huddleston, Perkins, Dodd, Mackay and Ebrahim all seem to be perfect plug-and-play types who can take a load off the shoulders of Aotearoa's best players. That's how you perform at major tournaments, although the WF are moving in the opposite direction.
Some of these veteran players may struggle to juggle work commitments with WF training or a trip to England during a pandemic. That's why you put them in positions to succeed, embrace them and their skills, making them feel valued. None of which has really happened when they are in and out of squads, selected to bat down the order when they've scored all their runs opening and so on. Hence I reckon some of these veterans don't feel the desperation to represent Aotearoa any more.
Now we have the series in England where a young group comes up against the same powerhouse that out-classed the kiwis in Aotearoa last summer. If there was rhyme and reason to how youngsters are being identified, developed and promoted, I'd have more confidence in the direction of the WF. In England we will be graced with further clarification around WF talent ID and development, all while there are many exciting kiwi cricketers chillin' in Aotearoa preparing for a domestic cricket summer that may or may not be taken into account with regards to further WF opportunities.
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