ANZ donates dark-coloured pants for over 1000 young female players. Photo / ANZ Aotearoa
ANZ donates dark-coloured pants for over 1000 young female players. Photo / ANZ Aotearoa
Merryn Anderson for LockerRoom
The drive to keep girls playing cricket gets a boost from a campaign offering free, coloured pants to school teams around the country. Merryn Anderson reports.
It may sound simple, but a colour can make all the difference to a young female cricketer staying in the sport.
The girls of the Nga Tawa School cricket team in Whanganui are a great example. After receiving new navy blue pants from a new NZ Cricket initiative with ANZ, one player, Anya, said they felt “like a proper team now”.
Her teammate, Laura, said wearing the dark pants made her feel more confident, and she could just focus on having fun and doing her best now.
The Nga Tawa girls were among more than 1000 players across Aotearoa to have been given the clothing boost to help them continue with cricket.
New Zealand Cricket (NZC) recognised the traditional white pants worn while playing the sport was a cause of concern for girls, with anxiety around wearing white during or before their period.
Along with girls dropping out of the sport because of not wanting to play in whites, another issue can be underperforming, due to anxiety and being distracted about the impact of having a period in whites, says Jess Davidson, head of female engagement at NZC.
“You feel really anxious and worried, it takes away from thinking about the game because you’re worried about wearing your white cricket pants,” Davidson says.
“I think it’s fantastic that we’re able to break down a lot of these barriers for young girls to get involved in cricket, to make sure they feel really comfortable and confident.”
Young and talented female cricket athletes are quitting the sport in high school because of the white plants.
Davidson says there’s a significant drop-off in cricket participation numbers once girls move from intermediate to high school.
“For us at New Zealand Cricket, it’s about reducing as many barriers as possible for young women to continue with cricket from their intermediate to high school years,” she explains.
“Or making sure they feel really comfortable and confident to pick up a cricket bat for the first time once they do enter high school if they’re a new player to the sport.”
NZC received direct feedback from school-aged girls saying they preferred to wear coloured pants when playing.
“They chatted around how wearing whites has led to anxiety around period-related issues, which can alter and hinder their concentration and performance – which actually takes away from their cricket experience,” Davidson says.
While white pants have been traditional for cricket, women’s cricket has evolved a lot over time, and NZC believes uniform is something which should evolve with it.
“You just have to see how much the women’s game has changed over the last 10, 20 years. There’s so much more innovation now, there’s creativity, there’s new formats,” Davidson says, with new leagues popping up all over the world.
“We need to evolve, and the feedback directly from our participants is telling us one thing – so as a sport, we need to be really adaptable and make sure we are catering to the needs, to make sure everyone feels like they’re welcome within our sport.”
ANZ donated more than 1000 pairs of coloured pants to schools and clubs across the motu, NZC identifying teams which were most in need.
“We saw this initiative as one way we could help create safe and supportive playing environments that empower women and girls to focus on their skills and enjoy their cricket,” a spokesperson from ANZ said.
“We believe being comfortable talking about these issues helps bring about positive change in society and will help the growth of female cricket.”
The White Ferns play in dark-coloured pants at the highest level, so Davidson says there’s no reason why that can’t happen at the community level.
The pants provided by ANZ were supplied by Dynasty, who make the pants for the domestic women’s cricket teams – “making sure it’s really quality and they ultimately just feel comfortable when they’re playing cricket, which is absolutely what we want to encourage”.
White Ferns, who play in the highest league, use dark-coloured pants when playing. Photo / Photosport
Research has shown that during high school is when the majority of girls drop out of sport in New Zealand, and ANZ has given more than $1.7 million through its ANZ Cricket Grants to clubs and communities, to help players continue to play cricket including girls.
“We also recognise the values that the sport can teach young girls —confidence, body positivity, resilience and teamwork — are really important.”
The response from the campaign has been “overwhelming”, says ANZ.
“From players to parents and coaches, the initiative has gone down well. They’ve appreciated the support and say they feel they’ve been heard.
“Players say they feel more confident and comfortable when playing cricket. We’re really proud to have worked with New Zealand Cricket to make this change.”
Nga Tawa Sachool players are among more than 1000 players given the dark clothing to help them continue with cricket. Photo / Nga Tawa School
Davidson says all the feedback has been really positive.
“It’s a small change that can really help reduce anxiety and ultimately have a big impact on the experience of young women,” she says.
“We want to make sure they continue being physically active. It’s been a really great start, and we hope to continue this moving forward, and just making sure we can cater to the needs of women and girls within our sport.”
It’s also been able to be used as a conversation starter, with some male coaches never realising wearing cricket whites was an issue.
It’s another step in the long evolution of the women’s game.
“The amount of money, resource, time and effort going into the women’s game is incredible,” says Davidson. “And I just think we need to make sure we continue to evolve and keep up with the needs of young women and what’s relevant to how they want to get involved in sport.”
This story was originally published at Newsroom.co.nz and is republished with permission.
