It’s exactly one month to go until the New Zealand WHITE FERNS play their first One-Day International in India and the conditions they will experience in the humid, southern reaches of the subcontinent couldn’t be further removed from the polar blast currently sweeping New Zealand.
The Ferns have just had their first pre-tour training camp at Lincoln, where temperatures plummeted to a bone-chilling minus three.
That was on their dawn training run. “It was fresh”, says new coach Haidee Tiffen, with a good dose of southern understatement. 
“But it’s a small price and just what we have to deal with in order to all be together in one place to prepare at this time of year. It was very valuable to get together. The girls worked very hard over the weekend, and we made use of valuable input from specialist coaches Matthew Bell, Dayle Hadlee, Paul Wiseman and Emily Drumm.”
Aside from the fitness and training sessions, the squad also had the chance to go through team values and the culture they want to embrace as a team, and identify the game plans they want to be able to put into action.
The Ferns sit ahead of India on the ICC Women’s Championship ranking table, after having won their recent IWC one-dayers against England this summer 2-0. They have three IWC games — each win worth two ranking points — as part of their forthcoming series in India, and it’s these games that count towards qualification for the next ICC Women’s World Cup.
It won’t be easy, mind, with the likes of Jhulan Goswami — the top-ranked ODI bowler in the world — set to use her renowned pace against them. And the WHITE FERNS have never won a series in India before, despite having a 7-all playing record from 15 ODIs, with one draw.
“We haven’t even played a T20i in India before, which I didn’t realise until I dived into the stats,” says Tiffen. “So it’s a really exciting opportunity for us over there as there is a real opportunity to win.”
How hard will it be to adjust from New Zealand in winter to tropical Bangalore in June, where the mercury is likely to push a sultry 30 degrees every day?
“India in their own backyard will be incredibly challenging, so part of our planning has been making sure we can head over earlier than we normally would for a tour. We’re effectively having a five-day camp before we even play a warm-up match — that’s something we haven’t been able to do enough of in the past.”
It’s key for a side that doesn’t get to spend a lot of time gelling on the road together, and one that features a few changes in personnel — such as newly selected Leigh Kasperek, who has previously played international cricket for Scotland, but is yet to make her WHITE FERNS debut — and Tiffen herself, though the still fit, lean, former captain has never been too far from the New Zealand game since her 2009 retirement as an international player.
To make up for the chilly dawn trainings, the WHITE FERNS camp concluded with management springing a surprise team-building event in which the players’ go-kart racing skills were put to the test.
Despite (or perhaps due to) not having a driver’s license, Kasperek won the award for fairest driver, while Sophie Devine clinched the fastest lap time.
The WHITE FERNS depart New Zealand for India on 18 June.
Squad: Suzie Bates (captain), Kate Broadmore, Sophie Devine, Natalie Dodd, Maddie Green, Georgia Guy, Leigh Kasperek, Morna Nielsen, Katie Perkins, Anna Peterson, Rachel Priest, Hannah Rowe, Amy Satterthwaite, Lea Tahuhu.
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