2022 Women's World Cup: Aotearoa's White Ferns Squad
Over the next two years, Aotearoa will be a focal point for international wahine sport. Aotearoa will co-host the Women's Football World Cup in July next year, after Aotearoa hosts the Women's Rugby World Cup in October this year and in March Aotearoa hosts the Women's Cricket World Cup to round off another beautiful Aotearoa summer. Three pinnacle women's events being played in Aotearoa - the best sporting nation in the world.
And here's how we get this glorious period started...
The White Ferns World Cup squad has been announced and selections were typically quirky. Don't buzz about selections though, because the most important thing to know about the White Ferns is that they are 3-20 in ODIs since the start of 2019 and 2-15 under coach Bob Carter. Hosting the World Cup might provide a home advantage though, especially given the current joys of international travel ... right?
Aotearoa hosted six ODIs in Aotearoa to start 2021. Aotearoa lost the first two games vs England, then grabbed a cute win. The White Ferns then lost all three games against Australia. That's not home advantage. This is where we learn how much folks actually care about the White Ferns because in January 2020 the White Ferns were swept 0-3 by South Africa in Aotearoa.
That should have been reason for dramas. No one cared.
If no one cared when Aotearoa lost 0-3 in Aotearoa to South Africa, no one will chat up a fuss when the White Ferns then lose all three games in Australia later in 2020. Home advantage has been a myth, so when the White Ferns toured England last year they cruised to a 1-4 series defeat.
All good though, nothing to see here.
Forget World Cup selection, if you can't smell the stench of a woeful ODI record ahead of a home World Cup then you must be dealing with them symptoms. I have steadily laid out how weird NZC women's talent identification is and along with straight up wins vs losses, this has shaped my coverage of all things wahine cricket.
There is a deep dive into White Ferns talent identification. Fine tune this a bit for simplicity and the two best female cricket systems in Aotearoa are Wellington and Otago. They currently have the best young cricketers in their respective teams, yet all talent ID stuff features a severe lack of Wellington and Otago youngsters. Such examples are littered throughout Aotearoa women's cricket, but if you didn't care about results then you won't care about deeper issues.
What's if I told you that there was a cricketer who has done the following over her last three seasons of Aotearoa's one-day competition...
Season 1: 2nd - 8inns, 517 runs @ 86.16avg/75.25sr, 6 x 50.
Season 2: 1st - 11inns, 480 runs @ 60avg/69.46sr, 2 x 100, 2 x 50.
Season 3: 1st - 5inns, 328 runs @ 82avg/71.92sr, 4 x 50.
In the two seasons prior to that, this player averaged 40+ over 10inns for each season. Sure, this player might not wind up earning 1st 11 selection because some of Aotearoa's greatest batters ever take up most batting spots but this player has a strong case for being among Aotearoa's best one-day batters right now. All of which warrants being in the mix for World Cup selection and yet Kate Ebrahim never had a chance of being in the mix.
However you want to slice the Ebrahim situation, it is in complete alignment with the dubious talent identification record and a losing White Ferns team. If these were isolated instances, then all good. Instead these wee examples are in alignment and having covered all the losses, documented a decline in form from the best players and a lack of development in role-players, having been deep in wahine cricket; I can't trust the decision-makers and we have a lot of bad juju here.
When Leigh Kasperek is not selected for the World Cup, I'm numb to it. Frustration has long been worked through and it's kinda funny - super unfortunate for Kasperek. Funny though, a culmination of all of the above antics and somehow they have eclipsed all of the above antics in their wisdom of dropping Kasperek.
Most White Ferns Wickets in 2021 ODIs
Leigh Kasperek: 1st - 14w @ 14.78avg/4.50rpo/19.7sr.
No other White Ferns bowler averages below 20, nor does any other bowler have a strike-rate below 20. Other White Ferns spinners in 2021...
Amelia Kerr: 6w @ 40.83avg/5.21rpo/47sr.
Amy Satterthwaite: 3w @ 50.66avg/6.16rpo/49.3sr.
Fran Jonas: 0w @ 6.36rpo.
Frances Mackay: 0w @ 5.81rpo.
Kasperek made her White Ferns debut in 2015, Kerr in 2016. Kerr is a superstar who is celebrated in every way - as she should be. You probably know a lot more about Kerr than you do Kasperek. Although Kasperek has been a better bowler than Kerr during their White Ferns careers and we have seen how effective they are in tandem for both Aotearoa and Wellington.
Most White Ferns Wickets Since Jan 1st 2015
Lea Tahuhu: 69w @ 29.75avg/4.46rpo/39.9sr.
Leigh Kasperek: 65w @ 19.43avg/3.98rpo/29.2sr.
Amelia Kerr: 60w @ 25.40avg/4.46rpo/34.1sr.
Most White Ferns Wickets in Aotearoa Since Jan 1st 2015
Lea Tahuhu: 30w @ 29.93avg/4.31rpo/41.6sr.
Leigh Kasperek: 25w @ 17.88avg/3.92rpo/27.3sr.
Amelia Kerr: 22w @ 33.54ag/4.49rpo/44.7sr.
Not only is Kasperek 2nd for White Ferns ODI wickets in this period (home or away), her efficiency evident in her average and strike-rate presents a fair case that Kasperek is Aotearoa's best ODI bowler. Someone could get super tricky about team balance or how Kasperek can't dive as far as other players, maybe Kasperek lacks the biomechanic swiftness that someone else has. You can't say that you have the best 15 wahine cricketers from Aotearoa when the best ODI bowler available is not selected.
So why trust anyone who is creating this mess? That trust had already departed when I realised that losing so many games had no bearing on coach Carter's job security. Trust tried to return but ran away when I combed through all the talent ID stuff and noted how the best players were not selected, then selected and shoved into minimal roles. Now this Kasperek stuff is just par for the White Ferns woes golf course.
It's kinda sad that such a glorious period for Aotearoa wahine sport has so much bad juju loitering, however this is also a fascinating sporting experiment. Perhaps none of what I have laid out will matter and that would be fantastic as it would involve the White Ferns being awesome, plus me learning how to better interpret sporting matters. Semi-finals would be lovely.
Stay learning. Then you'll learn that heading into this World Cup, dropping Kasperek is just the tip of the iceberg.
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Peace and love.