Cricket: White Ferns’ T20 World Cup win the perfect start to Whanganui season

The White Ferns beat South Africa by 32 runs in the T20 World Cup final this month. Photo / Isuru Sameera Peiris

The White Ferns’ triumph in this year’s T20 World Cup Final has kickstarted Whanganui’s 2024-25 cricket season.

Cricket Whanganui general manager Pete Bowman said White Ferns captain Sophie Devine was “spot on” when talking about how it should not just be an inspiration to young girls.

“It should inspire young girls and boys to pick up a bat,” he said.

“They lost 10 games in a row coming in [to the tournament] but they set their plan, made it to the final and beat South Africa comfortably in the end.”

Bowman said Whanganui’s Kiwi Cricket competition got under way this month, along with the women’s and girls’ T16 competitions – “there is a lot of stuff happening”.

Cricket Whanganui female development officer Verity Johnson said younger White Ferns had talked about watching Devine and Suzie Bates and dreaming of playing alongside them.

“Now here they are winning the World Cup together,” she said.

“It shows our girls that if you want to, you can. It’s the whole ‘see it, be it’ mantra that Cricket Whanganui and NZ Cricket are really hammering home at the moment.”

Johnson and Cricket Whanganui director of coaching Greg Smith arrived in town two years ago.

She said before touching down she was told there was not much women’s and girls’ cricket in Whanganui.

Cricket Whanganui staff Verity Johnson (left), Pete Bowman and Greg Smith. Photo / NZME

“I thought that would be a good challenge coming from a county [Berkshire] in England with many different women’s and girls’ sections.

“For pathway programmes, we’ve now got Girls Smash – Year 3 to 8 – through to Women’s Smash, which started as a soft [cricket] ball social competition.

“We’ve transitioned into hardball cricket and we’re giving players a chance to give it a go, rather than being the ones sitting on the sidelines making the teas and driving the kids everywhere.”

Johnson said Whanganui now had three representative girls’ teams – under-13s, under-15s and under-18s.

“There was not much happening when I joined but many years ago there was women’s and girls’ cricket here,” she said.

“Obviously, Charlotte Dickenson is back in the area and she is really keen to support the growth.

“When she was growing up, [cricket] was a huge part of her childhood.”

Dickenson, a former Whanganui and Central Districts representative who first picked up a bat at St John’s Hill Primary School, became the head cricket coach at Nga Tawa Diocesan School earlier this year.

Previously, she held roles with England’s under-17, under-19 and under-21 teams and was the assistant coach and manager of the England Women’s team that won the Ashes in 2005 – the first English Ashes victory since 1963.

Johnson said entry-level programmes in Whanganui were 30-minute, game-based activities.

“Players are constantly doing something rather than standing around.

“Everything is starting to get busy and it looks like it will be another promising season.”

Bowman said he hoped to get an eight-a-side social cricket league up and running in Whanganui this summer, with a possible start date of mid-November.

“We want it to be available for everyone to come in and have a crack.”

Mike Tweed is a multimedia journalist at the Whanganui Chronicle. Since starting in March 2020, he has dabbled in everything from sport to music. At present his focus is local government, primarily the Whanganui District Council.