CRICKET - Women's cricket looking for profile boost

New Zealand Cricket is hoping that taking the White Ferns on the road this summer, and success at the upcoming world cup in Australia, will help to boost the sport's profile here.
Prominent former New Zealand cricketer Catherine Campbell, now an administrator, took the opportunity to visit Whangarei's Cobham Oval - the venue of two of the White Ferns' warm-up internationals against Australia at the start of February - on Saturday, and said they hoped to emulate what women's soccer had achieved in the recent Under-17 World Cup.
Campbell said it had been encouraging to watch the success that New Zealand Football had enjoyed in 2008.
"Things like the Under-17 World Cup gave the game a huge profile and drew large crowds and success like that brings recognition [like increased Sparc funding] and we haven't forgotten that in our build-up to the World Cup in Australia in March.
"If we do well at that, then that will raise the game's profile here and it will show girls here that yes we can play cricket," she said.
Bringing the team north, away from their normal home at Lincoln University, is something of a break with the last few years.
"Lincoln has fantastic facilities as well, but by bringing it to areas like Northland we'll get good local support, not only from people coming to watch but from the media," Campbell said.
Campbell watched the Auckland Hearts playing the Northern Spirit on Saturday and said Cobham Oval had exceeded her expectations and was a fantastic venue.
"I think the other thing is that cricket does tend to pick up the really talented girls but the down side of that is that they play a lot of other sports as well so we're battling that - but we have to make it enjoyable and they love playing the representative stuff and coming to grounds like this to play - it's a real highlight for them," she said.
Campbell retired from a 14-year career as an international player after New Zealand won the ODI World Cup in 2000 and said that since then, the game had grown at the junior level but had remained static at the senior level.
"Because it's offered to kids a lot younger than it was in my day, through the Milo development programmes, that means there are a lot of school competitions whereas when I was young it wasn't on offer in primary school," she said.
"Girls are carrying on playing at secondary school but like a lot of other sports once they leave, school participation tails off especially in areas outside of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch where there aren't established adult competitions."
The development of the senior game remains one of the challenges for New Zealand Cricket.
The organisation would obviously have to think of new ways to keep them involved, Campbell said.