KEY POINTS:
Auckland Hearts opener Ros Kember has been playing cricket for as long as she can remember, but the 2007-08 season looms as her most exciting yet.
The new format of the State League, which has been expanded to include a Twenty20 competition, along with two test series against England and Australia, means Kember is in for a big summer.
Not that she is complaining.
The White Ferns rookie is pleased to have the opportunity to play more Twenty20 matches, and the freedom that comes with the shortened version of the game.
"As an opener my focus is on technique and building an innings so it's great to be able to get a chance to free my arms and play a lot more aggressively without worrying about the consequences," Kember said.
The women's domestic competition was previously all crammed into one month, but has been changed this season with the rounds up to three weeks apart.
Kember said she prefers the new schedule.
"Having it all condensed into one month is fine if you're having a good run with the bat, but if you're not then you don't really have any chance to bat your way into form.
"It's good now because you have a chance to go back and work on things in the net."
Kember has had a limited taste of international cricket, having made her debut for the White Ferns in Brisbane last year against Australia in the Rosebowl series.
She then earned a late call up for the Kiwi side's tour of England and is looking to cement her place in the line-up for next year's tests against Australia and England.
The 22-year-old said she is keen to add to her six international appearances.
"It was a real eye-opener playing at a higher level and the game is much faster.
"Getting to play at that level, especially against Australia, is the ultimate."
With the next round of the State League not until after Christmas, Kember is in Christchurch with the White Ferns over the weekend as the team gears up for a big summer.
She is hoping a season of club cricket in Sydney has proven fruitful and will help catch the eye of the New Zealand selectors.
Looking for a change of scenery, the former Epsom Girls Grammar student made the move to Sydney this year after transferring her architecture degree. While the move was not motivated by her cricket career, she has found playing club cricket in Sydney hugely beneficial.
"The club comp over there is really, really strong - it attracts players from England so it's very competitive."
Former White Ferns captain Maia Lewis, now the women's cricket co-ordinator for Auckland Cricket, believes that despite a raft of retirements from the national side in recent times, the Kiwi side still has the goods to perform well.
New Zealand take on England in a five-test series beginning at the end of February as build-up for the Rosebowl series against the impressive Australians in March.
The White Ferns lost this year's series 3-2 and Lewis believes the gap between the two is closing.
"There's still the basis of the squad which have been together for about four or five years now and even though they've lost the experience of Rebecca Rolls who has just retired, and Emily Drumm's not playing at the moment, there's still a lot of players who have been in the team for a long time," Lewis said.
"I think there's still a lot of talent coming through - the likes of young exciting players like Suzie Bates and Sophie Devine."
But both Bates and Devine are internationally recognised in other sports. Bates is part of the wider Tall Ferns basketball side, while Devine, a member of the Junior Black Sticks Under-21 side, is a promising young hockey player.
A major challenge of Lewis' role in terms of recruitment and development is trying to compete with other sports and retain talent.
She said cricket experiences a massive drop off in women's playing numbers after high school.
"It's a matter of trying to compete with other sports. One of the things we can't offer as a carrot of some of the other sports is that they can go to the Olympics and that's sort of the ultimate.
"We just basically need to be quite adaptable and flexible in terms of allowing them to play both really, otherwise we might lose them altogether."
