More planning results in better organised women's programme

Ensuring a consistency of competition on an annual basis is high on the list of women's cricket's international wish list.

New Zealand Cricket's assistant manager of cricket operations, and former TelstraClear White Fern, Catherine Campbell said today that the participating nations at this year's World Series of Women's Cricket tournament at the High Performance Centre at Lincoln University were all agreed about the need for more competition.

During last week's high performance review of women's cricket, Campbell reported on the outcome of a meeting during the tournament between representatives of the four nations, New Zealand (herself and John Reid), Australia (Belinda Clark), England (Gill McConway) and India (Sreerupa Bose).

Clark and McConway are both chief executives of their respective national women's cricket bodies.

Campbell said a discussion paper had been circulated to the participating countries before the tournament and it was decided to hold a meeting during the event. The International Women's Cricket Council (IWCC) were also invited but were unable to attend.

The main aim of the meeting had been to gain support for the quadrangular series every four years, which would result in a major event every two years between the four-yearly World Cups. And this had been supported by the others at the meeting.

"What we would also like to have is international cricket in New Zealand every summer," Campbell said.

"We have all been a little guilty of agreeing to competition, but only a year out, so we worked out a series programme for the next four years. Four years is not that long but it is more than we've had before," she said.

The participants left the New Zealand meeting to go back to their respective boards to gain approval for the plans.

Campbell has been invited to put a paper to the IWCC annual meeting in the Netherlands in July about the quadrangular concept which had been supported by the IWCC.

With the implementation of a regular tours programme some years would be better than others and while New Zealand this year will have three home games and three away games against Australia, those matches would be backed by a tour to India, probably in November, and a tour to England in the middle of next year, she said.

Both those tours would include Test matches, but there would be no Test matches played in New Zealand in the foreseeable future.

Campbell said it was the prerogative of each country to decide whether they wanted to host Test cricket but in New Zealand all the cricket played was of a one-day nature and it was the desire to be good at that form of the game.

"Players are entering the game because of the one-day nature of it. That's not to say that it won't happen in the future," she said.

The review also involved working with the State League coaches and reviewing the last summer, the playing and player development structures. Scheduling and timing for next season were looked at.

"One of our big issues still is adult club cricket," she said.

Some initiatives may need to be taken to ensure top players were getting more exposure to tougher conditions, but that would not involve players not taking part in club programmes.

"Our numbers are still growing at the younger levels, and our development programmes are having an impact at primary and intermediate levels. But there is still that problem area after they leave school," she said.

Solutions were still being sought on this.

The national winter training squad to prepare for next season is expected to be named soon.