The White Ferns are a highly successful team, and have even received pay equity – but without multi-day matches, they still don’t have play equity.

The White Ferns are a highly successful team, and have even received pay equity – but without multi-day matches, they still don’t have play equity.

The White Ferns are world champions at Twenty20 cricket.

They’ve also tasted success in 50-over games recently against England and South Africa.

Off the field, they’re now recognised alongside their male counterparts with pay equity for appearance fees – but there’s no play equity.

While the men are about to play England in a high-profile test series, the women haven’t played a multi-day test for 22 years.

It’s even longer since New Zealand last hosted a women’s test – 31 years.

Earlier this year it was reported New Zealand Cricket turned down the chance to play a test in Australia next season.

Past internationals Frankie Mackay and Penny Kinsella tell The Detail it’s a sporting tragedy that soon-to-retire greats of the game Suzie Bates and Sophie Devine never got to wear whites for their country.

They’ve each had 20-year careers that have spanned white ball cricket only.

Others, including Mackay, have come and gone from the international scene in that time without bowling a red ball or batting all afternoon.

The Detail asked NZ Cricket for an interview about the test drought, but a spokesperson says with the White Ferns’ world Twenty20 title defence just weeks away, now’s not the right time.

In a statement, its head of women’s high performance development, Liz Green, says there are no plans to reintroduce tests for the White Ferns at this stage.

But, she says, never say never, although the organisation thinks concentrating resources on white ball cricket will grow the game in New Zealand.

“The limited overs formats have proven to be very effective in terms of attracting and retaining young players, which is a significant factor in the health of the women’s game here.

“In time, this will provide a bigger base from which talented players will emerge to ultimately play for the White Ferns,” she says.

“Focusing on formats which include ICC global events, such as world cups, is our preference for now.”

But there’s a growing chorus that says that’s not good enough.

Former White Fern Penny Kinsella played six tests and 20 one-day internationals for New Zealand in the 1990s.

Her handle on social media platform X is: “PK says tests for White Ferns”, and she has a banner repeating this message, which she takes to cricket matches.

She unfurled it recently at the Basin Reserve in Wellington, when the White Ferns played South Africa, and in Perth, when she went to watch Australia play India in a test.

“Absolutely they should be playing test cricket,” she says of New Zealand.

“It’s a fine heritage we have of test cricket dating back to 1935. Over that time we’ve had some really cool struggles trying to establish ourselves as a test nation and then actually getting to the point in the 1970s where we won a few matches.”

New Zealand has played 45 tests, for two wins, both in 1972, and 10 losses.

It’s recognised that most countries around the world lose money on hosting men’s test cricket.

So, The Detail asked Kinsella what might have to be given up if New Zealand were to afford to play women’s tests, and prepare the White Ferns for this.

“My idea would be to repurpose the North-South [Islands] series that we’ve had reinstituted, into a way of preparing our players to play the multi-day format, and for the best players to be challenging the best players to see if they have what it takes to be able to develop those endurance skills and those strategic skills,” she says.

Kinsella’s had a long involvement in cricket – including receiving the Bert Sutcliffe Medal in 2022 for her contributions to the sport – and has the ear of New Zealand Cricket.

She says she’ll continue to agitate for change and hold officials to account.

Penny Kinsella: "They should be playing test cricket." Photo / Photosport

Frankie Mackay, who played 30 one-dayers and 30 Twenty20 internationals for New Zealand, says the White Ferns should play tests, although the issue isn’t simple.

“I think if you talk to any players they would say, ‘Of course New Zealand’s representative side should be playing test cricket, just like their male counterparts’,” she tells The Detail.

“But there are so many layers that come into it that make it probably not as straightforward as this.

“There’s no first-class system, there’s no three-day cricket or four-day cricket, no red ball cricket or pink ball cricket being played domestically in New Zealand.”

She says money comes into it, too. Could it be better spent on development programmes and tours?

She agrees with Kinsella that the inter-island series of matches could be repurposed to prepare top women cricketers for test matches.

“I think it’s a pretty hard ask to say to people, ‘Rock up and play an international test match. You’ve never had any experience in it before and just see how you go’.

“I think there needs to be a little more planning that goes in behind the scenes than that.”

However, Mackay warns against creating a “convenient excuse” for saying the White Ferns are never ready for a test.

“I just have a fear that 10 years down the line we might be having the same conversation that says, ‘well, the White Ferns keep getting offered these test matches and there’s still no red ball cricket, no four-day cricket. There’s no structure towards it, so they keep saying ‘no’.

“Potentially, that’s to the detriment of players in this country and to the detriment of the White Ferns.”

A decade ago women’s test cricket seemed to be on its deathbed, as only Australia and England played each other in the occasional one-off match.

But, in recent years India and South Africa have rejoined the multi-day women’s game, while the West Indies were supposed to play Australia this year, only to cancel at the last minute.

One possibility Mackay raised is that NZ Cricket could use the projected windfall from private Twenty20 leagues to fund women’s tests.

NZ Cricket says it doesn’t yet have sufficient information to know if that will affect its stance, but it perhaps provides a glimmer of hope that the White Ferns’ test hiatus isn’t permanent.

This story was originally published at Newsroom.co.nz and is republished with permission.