The WHITE FERNS hosted the West Indies during the month of March in 3 One Day Internationals and 5 T20 matches, of which the WHITE FERNS were dominant in both series. The tour allowed for several community initiatives to be delivered.
Christchurch was the first stop for the WHITE FERNS with engagement sessions at Heathcote Cricket Club and St Margaret’s College and a Kids on the Park at Hagley Oval.
When the kids want a selfie with the kid 🙊 good to get out to Heathcote cricket club with some of the @WHITE_FERNS tonight and chat/play with the kids #fun #bigkids pic.twitter.com/ZEbrxwzoAK
— Lea Tahuhu (@LTahuhu) March 2, 2018
The series then moved to Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui where The WHITE FERNS got involved in Bay of Plenty Cricket’s Trillian Trust Rainbow Cup and the Junior Northern Premier League.
How cute is this from earlier today!? Bay of Plenty Cricket’s Rainbow World Cup for girls was a blast 🙌#communitycricket pic.twitter.com/a82OoryXa4
— WHITE FERNS (@WHITE_FERNS) March 14, 2018
The Bay Oval leg of the tour also included the winner of the WHITE FERNS experience prize, Flora Devonshire, the chance to spend both a training day and match day as part of the WHITE FERNS squad.
Flora’s training day experience consisted of a meet and greet with the players, taking part in a training session at Bay Oval and joining the team dinner that night. During the match day experience Flora bonded with the players in the dressing room and observed the pre-match warm up before watching the match unfold within the team viewing room. After the experience Flora commented “The two days were so much fun, it was great to be so involved with the team and experience the way things work. It was really interesting to watch and learn about their fielding drills and a highlight would have to be bowling to Suzie in the nets”.
Flora can be seen front row, third from the left in the below photo.
— WHITE FERNS (@WHITE_FERNS) March 14, 2018
The next stop for the WHITE FERNS was two T20 matches at Pukakura Park, New Plymouth.
Signature time 🖊#NZvWI pic.twitter.com/6A9beiOMwt
— WHITE FERNS (@WHITE_FERNS) March 20, 2018
While in New Plymouth the WHITE FERNS attended two player engagement and signing sessions at Francis Douglas Memorial College and the Sulzberger Indoor Centre.
The last stop for the WHITE FERNS saw the final T20 match of the series being played at Seddon Park, Hamilton where an activation zone was set up for fans.
WHITE FERNS captain Suzie Bates led a coin toss mascot out to the middle and also held a capping ceremony for 12 promising junior girls’ rep players before the start of the final T20 match in Hamilton.
The NZC Community team would like to thank all the participants, major and district associations, the WHITE FERNS players and support staff and everyone else who helped to make the West Indies tour of the WHITE FERNS a great success.
