England’s clean sweep over New Zealand, winning all eight matches across both white-ball formats, highlights a glaring concern for women’s international cricket.
The White Ferns’ bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in 2022, which they beat England to win, feels like a lifetime ago in comparison to their performances this summer which barely saw Heather Knight’s side need to reach anything even approaching their peak.
The series culminated at Lord’s on Wednesday with a decent effort from New Zealand, and yet they still ended up 20 runs short.
And, worryingly, they are still “at least a decade away” from catching up with England and Australia, according to former New Zealand all-rounder Frankie Mackay.
“It’s a huge worry, something that everyone in New Zealand is aware of,” Mackay told BBC Sport.
“It’s not as though they have picked the wrong squad for this tour, but there just isn’t enough of a player pool to choose from at the moment.”
In contrast, England are thriving from increased investment into the women’s domestic set-up with more than 100 professional cricketers at eight regions across the country, with another big restructure starting next year.
The young players in Heather Knight’s side like Charlie Dean, Freya Kemp and Alice Capsey are able to play with a freedom and confidence that comes with such security while New Zealand’s most experienced players are weighed down by the pressure of knowing so much rests on their shoulders.
Captain Sophie Devine, 34, batter Suzie Bates, 36, and 23-year-old Amelia Kerr are three of the world’s best but look burdened with the knowledge that if they do not score the bulk of New Zealand’s runs, they will struggle to win – as this tour has proved.
The tourists’ highest score in the T20 series was 141, which England chased with four wickets to spare, while also winning by five wickets after New Zealand’s highest score of 211 in the ODIs.
“In Bates, Devine, Kerr and Amy Satterthwaite, who retired in 2022, you have four of the best players New Zealand have ever produced,” Mackay added.
“But they have all come at the same time, and three of them will go at roughly the same time.
“And there’s no silverware to show for it, their last World Cup final was 2010. It does feel like we missed the boat with that a little bit in terms of the professionalism and the investment, it allowed England and Australia to get a long way ahead.
“We are still at least a decade behind them.”
Mackay added that there are “lots of questions but very few answers” about improving New Zealand’s chances but said equal match fees to the men’s game and televising the domestic competition, the Super Smash, shows a desire to invest and “steps in the right direction”.
So while England are heading to the autumn’s T20 World Cup in Bangladesh full of confidence, and with a strong chance of knocking Australia off the podium that they have occupied for so long, their unbeaten home summer comes with a warning to the wider game and its future.
