From the blokes who brought you kiwi wahine cricket classics such as 'Poor Talent Identification', 'The White Ferns Demise' and 'Multiple Mental Health Breaks' we now have a fresh adventure in 'White Ferns Darkness Before Dawn'. The last dose of Aotearoa White Ferns cricket was their fumbling World Cup campaign in which coach Bob Carter continued to lead the Ferns' decline and recent events provide us with plenty of kai to digest.

What happened to coach Bob Carter? He stepped down from his post and was strangely positive in reflecting about all the losses that took Aotearoa from a world-class cricket outfit to whatever they are now. Carter quietly dipped back into a high performance role that he held prior to leading the White Ferns decline. No accountability, just blokes leading wahine sport and if you're looking for the latest 'what are blokes doing to wahine sport?' chapter - this is a banger.

Some mainstream media joker suggested that the new era of White Ferns cricket is required because the White Ferns demise was due to players under-performing. The Niche Cache has consistently highlighted how the leadership of blokes created the White Ferns demise and this involves the best players declining under coach Carter and his staff, strange selections from coaches/selectors and NZC's high performance unit doing low performance mahi.

The players have to roll with that and I maintain that the players operated with immense mana during the World Cup, elevating their mana despite decisions made above them. Relevant events over the past few days form the start of a new era and there is a clear objective to shuffle young players into the White Ferns. That's all good as a premise, however there is already a blatant trend of baffling talent identification and development that shades this new era.

Folks who have stumbled through talent identification and development are now leading a new era? There is no built up equity here, nor should anyone trust this process.

Don't cling to NZC contracts though. The benefits are obvious to players, however they hold little importance from an external perspective. Players can and always have played for Blackcaps or White Ferns without NZC contracts, while missing out on a contract can be highly beneficial as that player can still represent Aotearoa as well as being free of NZC's clingy tentacles.

White Ferns contracts are however more important than Blackcaps contracts as NZC has no level of equality across genders. Wahine need jobs, blokes just play cricket. An NZC wahine contract eases that burden and this is why players who have barely played domestic cricket, let alone performed strongly have been elevated to contracted status; get them in full-time training asap and in theory they flourish.

These contracts should be viewed as NZC investments and provide fans with insights into who NZC views as the most important cricketers. Given all the information that The Niche Cache has shared about stinky talent identification and development, we can all kick back and giggle as we observe how those 'investments' play out. These contracts tell us nothing about the players, they only serve as insight into the opinions of NZC's high performance unit.

In the announcement of Amy Satterthwaite's retirement, Stronarch noted...

“We also considered the immediate playing programme and next pinnacle events - both heavily weighted towards T20I cricket.”

Leigh Kasperek is the best Aotearoa T20I bowler since January 1st, 2018. This comes after Aotearoa's best ODI bowler leading into the World Cup was dropped for the World Cup. Kasperek averages below 16 in T20 and T20I cricket , while these new players selected with T20 cricket in mind have barely made a dent in the Super Smash.

Of course, Satterthwaite was overlooked along with Lea Tahuhu and Frances Mackay. Based on that Kasperek stuff, such shenanigans are to be expected at this point. Tahuhu is also one of Aotearoa's best T20I bowlers right now and Mackay was one of Aotearoa's best players at the World Cup in spite of her treatment from NZC.

The best players were not selected for the World Cup and that resulted in losses. The contracted player list does not reflect Aotearoa's best wahine cricketers and with that in mind, fans must adjust their White Ferns expectations. The dawn of a new era is a lovely concept and ensures that blokes will keep their jobs for longer thanks to this idea, yet it is not conducive to winning. The White Ferns will continue to slide.

Of the newly contracted players, Nensi Patel and Eden Carson are the best and most exciting. They are still learning the domestic grind and would have benefitted from another stint in the 'Development Contract' bracket. None of these newly contracted players are better than the veterans they replace and as you will see below, these players are not even the best players in their domestic teams.

Georgia Plimmer

LA: 20 games - 15.46avg (batting).

T20: 22 games - 10.53avg (batting).

Molly Penfold

LA: 17 games - 36.92avg (bowling).

T20: 14 games - 36.14avg (bowling).

Izzy Gaze

LA: 12 games - 7.62avg (batting).

T20: 14 games - 11.57avg (batting).

Fran Jonas

LA: 24 games - 27.35avg (bowling).

T20: 28 games - 28.33avg (bowling).

Nensi Patel

LA: 35 games - 26.64avg (batting) | 26.50avg (bowling).

T20: 30 games - 13avg (batting) | 17.46avg (bowling).

Eden Carson

LA: 36 games - 30.11avg (bowling).

T20: 37 games - 18.87avg (bowling).

Aotearoa's White Ferns were already in a steep decline. After making the semi-finals of the 2016 T20 World Cup, they did not get out of the group stages in 2018 and 2020. Aotearoa won the 2000 World Cup and results have consistently worsened since then; SF (2005), 2nd (2009), 4th (2013), 5th (2017) and 6th (2021).

The White Ferns decline has coincided with the growth of wahine cricket around the world. Australia and England are the dominant forces that Aotearoa used to call peers, now South Africa has overtaken Aotearoa to join India in this top-tier. West Indies overtook Aotearoa during this World Cup and along with the likes of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka they will enjoy swift growth. Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, Scotland, Thailand and USA have also been graced with ODI status to signal further wahine cricket growth around the world.

This sets the scene for the next few years of Aotearoa White Ferns cricket. White Ferns have been moving backwards since coach Carter took over and an influx of young players with minimal domestic experience will likely see this decline continue. NZC's regime has overseen this decline and their decisions have had a direct influence on the decline. How the next few years play out can be traced back to this regime and the proof found in pudding will reflect directly back on those responsible.

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Peace and love.