Four new caps for world champions' tour to India

Four new caps have been named today for the world champion CLEAR White Ferns' tour to India in November-December.

Three of the new caps have attended New Zealand's Cricket Academy at Lincoln University over the winter.

New Zealand is the only cricket nation to have made places available for women in its Academy programme.

The three players, Fiona Fraser (21), Sarah Burke (19) and Aimee Mason (18) will be joined by Wellington's Anna Corbin as the only new players named in the squad.

The full team chosen by the selection panel of Lesley Murdoch (convener), Kirsty Flavell, Eileen Badham and Mike Shrimpton is: Emily Drumm - captain (State Auckland Hearts), Kathryn Ramel - vice captain (State Auckland Hearts), Burke (Canterbury), Corbin (Wellington), Paula Flannery (Canterbury), Fraser (Canterbury), Erin McDonald (State Central Districts), Mason (State Central Districts), Anna O'Leary (State Wellington), Nicola Payne (Canterbury), Rachel Pullar (State Otago Sparks), Rebecca Rolls (State Auckland Hearts), Haidee Tiffen (Canterbury), Emily Travers (State Central Districts), Helen Watson (State Auckland Hearts).

Missing from the team that won the CricInfo Women's World Cup last summer are New Zealand's greatest women's cricketer Debbie Hockley and veteran off-spinner Catherine Campbell, who have retired, while pace bowler Katrina Keenan and off-spinner Clare Nicholson are not available this season.

Eleven of the World Cup squad remain to give it a core of experience. Five of the players, Drumm, Ramel, Rolls, Pullar and Payne, have toured India before, for the 1997 Women's World Cup when New Zealand was beaten in the final by Australia.

Coach Mike Shrimpton, a former New Zealand Test batsman, has also coached in India before, having taken the New Zealand men's under-19 team there in 1992.

Of the new players, Fraser and Burke are promising pace bowlers with Fraser also handy with the bat.

Mason, who emerged last summer as a member of the Yoplait Cup-winning New Plymouth Girls' High School team, is an all-rounder while Corbin is a right-arm off-spinner whose economy rate of 2.18 was the best in last year's women's inter-provincial competition, the State Insurance Cup.

Murdoch commented: "It might be thought that the loss of Debbie Hockley, Catherine Campbell and others from the World Cup squad might mean the team is in re-building phase.

"This is not the case and the selectors have every confidence in the maturity and skill of the four newly-capped players.

"We expect they and the team will overcome the challenge of Indian conditions and prove extremely competitive," she said.

New Zealand Cricket will continue to monitor the situation in Asia after the terrorist attacks on the United States and would leave any decision on the future of the tour for another five weeks.

The CLEAR White Ferns are scheduled to assemble in Auckland on Wednesday, November 21.