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White Ferns head coach Ben Sawyer usually states that the squads that are selected are based on players who have shown performance in the domestic game, but is that entirely true?
The announcement of the White Ferns and New Zealand A squads to take on England and England A once again raises concern that players aren’t being selected on their domestic form.
Many players over the past two seasons have been performing and don’t feature in either team. Today we take a look into who those players are.
We took the top twenty and wicket takers' run scores in the 2023/24 HBJ Shield and Dream 11 Super Smash competitions and have shaped our article around those players. (We took out those who are not eligible to play New Zealand in these numbers and also those who are big names in the White Ferns).
Names in here stick out like a sore thumb with those names being the likes of Jess McFadyen, Frankie Mackay, and Felicity Robertson just to name some. We’ll start by looking at those players and how they’ve performed in their batting, bowling and keeping mahi.
Jess McFadeyn
HBJ Shield: 390 runs @43.33
Super Smash: 199 runs @13.22
HBJ Shield: 8 Catches
Super Smash: 2 Catches
McFadyen was the top run scorer out of any player in the HBJ Shield scoring three fifties and one ton in the season. She was a classy player at the top of the order for the Blaze and assisted in getting them over the line with her experience behind the stumps.
The three keepers that McFadyen can be compared to (ones who have been selected in the WFs/NZ A side) are Izzy Gaze, Bernie Bezuidenhout (WFs) and Polly Inglis (NZ A).
Inglis is a player who has deserved her selection with her 324 runs in the HBJ being the second most across the competition, so we are going to praise that correct selection.
Gaze on the other hand is a different story. She only mustered 30 runs across the Super Smash season at an average of 4.29 and was potentially only in the side for her keeping. Her HBJ Shield stats do read a lot better however managing 168 runs at an average of 24. Gaze’s limited performances over the Super Smash season raises eyebrows as to whether she should be in the White Ferns or if it should be McFadyen.
Frankie Mackay
HBJ Shield: 308 runs @38.50
Super Smash: 222 runs @27.75
HBJ Shield: 16 wickets @17.63
Super Smash: 7 wickets @17.57
Mackay is an extremely talented player and dominated the majority of the stats for her beloved Canterbury Magicians side across both batting and bowling. Coming back from an ankle injury in the 2022/23 season, Mackay returned this past season and had a great impact with the fourth most HBJ runs, fifth most HBJ wickets, and the sixth most Super Smash runs.
Following the final game of the season, it was unclear if Mackay would be retiring from cricket and that should think about it over the winter. Her figures of 4/34 vs England at the Women’s Cricket World Cup in 2022 are just a key reminder of how valuable her bowling can be, nearly getting Aotearoa over the line in that game.
Felicity Robertson
HBJ Shield: 310 runs @44.29
Super Smash: 127 runs @15.88
HBJ Shield: 10 wickets @22.20
Super Smash: 0 wickets
The Otago Sparks captain was extremely influential to her side's victorious season in the HBJ Shield, a player who led from the front and often stood up in the big moments. She was just behind McFadyen and Inglis for the most runs in the HBJ Shield.
Her bowling was very useful this summer as she brought herself into the attack at all different times throughout the season and kept the pressure on her opposing batters. She is also one of five players to take a five-wicket bag on Women’s ODI debut and it is baffling how that was her only ODI.
These three players that we’ve gone in-depth on are just some of the inform players across the women’s domestic game and it is truly puzzling as to their non-selections in either the White Ferns or New Zealand A.
Whilst those three might be the big names of non-selection in the NZ A side, there have also been a lot of others who have been consistently performing in both competitions. A lot of these players have stood out regularly for their sides but particularly the players highlighted below have done well in their bowling efforts.
Marama Downes was vital to help progress Northern through to their first-ever elimination final in the Super Smash with her 16 wickets across the season. She also grabbed a maiden T20 five-wicket bag, the first ever 5 wickets in an innings for Northern in a T20 fixture.
Along with Downes, Caitlin Gurrey and Jess Watkin also showed their class for Northern in both the T20 and List A comps.
Gurrey was on fire with the bat across both formats with 230 runs in the Super Smash and 299 in the HBJ Shield. Carrying White Ferns T20I experience on her shoulders (back in the 2018/19 season) would have been immense to the New Zealand A side. Her non-selection in the North vs South fixtures was also confusing at best.
Watkin is another non-selection in the NZ A side. Having made the move from Central to Northern before the summer started, she made impacts for Northern, especially at the bowling crease. 142 runs and 11 wickets in the Super Smash was one of the all-around performances for the Brave and she backed this up with seven HBJ wickets and 168 runs.
Wellington’s Xara Jetly and Canterbury’s Gabby Sullivan are two other standouts for their respective sides. Whilst Jetly only managed nine wickets across her ten games in the Super Smash, she did bowl tightly with the ball and bowled the all-important ball that bowled Claudia Green in the tied fixture against the Hinds. Jetly’s HBJ Shield stats, however, show that she was one of the extremely important players that contributed towards the Blaze making the HBJ final. Her 17 wickets across the season came with an economy rate of just 3.72, showing her determination and skill with the ball.
Sullivan is the final player that we are looking at. She has always been one to keep an eye on and has been touted for future honours throughout her career, specifically over the last couple of seasons. She played all ten of Canterbury’s games across the HBJ Shield and bagged 13 wickets to her name, this followed her 21 wickets in the previous summer in the same format. Sullivan’s T20 stats may not have been as good compared to her LA bowling, but she still grabbed eight wickets in eight matches.
Now we go back to the main point of this article, are the players being selected on form? I would say that, yes, some of them are. But some aren’t.
In the past, NZC Head of Women’s High-Performance Liz Green has stated: “We’ve (NZC) wanted our best players to go away and dominate domestic cricket, and we’ve started to see that, which means we can reward players who’ve shown improvement.”
On the selection of the NZ A squad, Green stated: “The selection panel worked alongside Major Association coaches to identify strong domestic performers and skill sets that aligned to White Ferns succession plans.”
This doesn’t necessarily ring true for some of the players who were selected for the side.
Central’s Flora Devonshire is one name that would be a surprise selection in the A-side. She managed four wickets in six games for the Hinds in the HBJ Shield and 25 runs with the bat. Devonshire only made 21 runs and two wickets in the Super Smash. Do these numbers show domination of the domestic comp? You make your mind up, but I know where I sit on this one.
Izzy Gaze is another player who in reality should not be close to that White Ferns T20 or ODI side. 30 runs in seven T20 games. Like c’mon NZC, that is not form one bit.
Jess Simmons was another surprise selection off the back of seven wickets and six runs in three HBJ games, accompanied by zero Super Smash wickets and two runs off the bat. No offence at all to Simmons, but this is nowhere near domination.
The selectors going on about domestic form is not true and this needs to stop. If you are going to say that players are going to be selected on form then pick the ones who are.
There are quite a few honourable mentions in terms of players who have gone all right in either the HBJ Shield or the Super Smash, players who would have been close to earning a spot in the side:
Bella James - 161 runs @16.10
Rebecca Burns - 161 runs @16.10
Thamsyn Newton - 158 runs @19.75
Georgia Atkinson - 274 runs @34.25
Nat Dodd - 271 runs @33.88
Kate Chandler - 244 runs @27.11
Jacinta Savage - 181 runs @20.11
Kayley Knight - 18 wickets @15.44
Natasha Codyre - 11 wickets @25.73
Ocean Bartlett - 9 wickets @30.56
Josie Penfold - 7 wickets @21.43
We hope that you can see that the players who are deserving of selection aren’t getting it. It baffles us and we hope you feel the same as well!
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