White Fern Amelia Kerr Named As ICC's Best Female Player

Tuesday, 28 January 2025, 9:15 pm
Article: RNZ

Felicity Reid, Sports Journalist

ICC women's cricketer of the year Amelia Kerr does not believe she has reached her peak yet.

The 24-year-old White Fern is the first New Zealander - male or female - to win cricket's top overall individual award.

She held off the challenge of South Africa's Laura Wolvaardt, Australian Annabel Sutherland and Sri Lanka's Chamari Athapaththu to win.

Spin-friendly conditions and enjoying playing the game last season are what Kerr credited with helping her to achieve a feat that had eluded many of her childhood cricketing idols.

"As a kid I was looking up to the White Ferns and the Black Caps and I think of Sophie [Devine] and Suzie [Bates] who are role models and Amy [Satterthwaite] who in their own right have been the best players in the world for periods of their career and then people like Kane Williamson who I tried to model my batting off as a kid and you hear of those great names and to be standing here with this award it is obviously very special," Kerr said.

"I feel experienced in a way that I've played x amount of games but I'm still so young in my career and I feel young and that's the exciting thing with the women's game it is growing and growing and I'm so fortunate that I've come into at this time in my career and as a player I have that drive and determination to get better."

Last week Kerr was named as the ICC women's T20 cricketer of the year off the back of her performances at the T20 World Cup where New Zealand lifted the trophy and Kerr top scored in the final against South Africa with 43 off 38 balls and picked up three wickets.

She took a New Zealand calendar year record of 29 wickets in 18 T20 matches in 2024, she also took 14 ODI wickets.

With the bat she scored 651 runs across both formats.

Recognition for Kerr's individual success came during a season in which the White Ferns struggled as well as reached the top of the world.

"After the year that had it's challenging periods for the group after 10 losses on the bounce but to then win the world cup was pretty special, that was obviously the highlight, and to be able to contribute for New Zealand and have the award at the end it's special but it's not really something you play for."

One of the features of Kerr's year was how she raised her game in the biggest moments, stepping up as a decisive player for the White Ferns in their crunch knockout matches en-route to the T20 title.

"You want to be the player in the big moments you want to step up and I think back to that childhood dream when I'm in the nets and I was batting with [current team mates] Suzie and Sophie and I was batting with them in world cup finals and you dream about hitting the winning runs or taking the last wicket and for me to finally after eight or so years in the White Ferns to have an opportunity to play in a final was special and [I wanted] to try and make the most it.

"Things fell into place this year but I think a lot of it is what happens behind the scenes."

The spinner did not foresee a record-breaking season happening before it did. She said she had stuck to the same processes she had before.

"If I can stay consistent in how I prepare and how I want to play hopefully I can be more successful than not."

Kerr did not think she was the finished product as a cricketer just yet.

"I'm trying to get better each and every year and work hard and find little things that are going to make me better but I think this last year it has been my bowling, and not much has changed necessarily, but I think in T20 cricket players are coming hard at you so just trying to bowl my best ball and have fields that match that and keeping it really simple and that seemed to work."

She also wanted to make sure she focussed on all aspects of the game.

"I remember when I started batting for New Zealand people worried that I was going to forget about my bowling but I've always said I want to be a genuine all-rounder and be equal at both and I want to be the best at what I do at each stage of the game and for me it is trying to grow every part of my game and it's not just bat, bowl, field it's off-field, it's how I am as a team mate and also in leadership ways with Wellington. So there's a lot of things I am looking to get better at and I think that's the great thing about being a cricket is there is so many parts of your game you can keep improving on."

As one of the more experienced players in the current New Zealand squad Kerr was taking a cautious approach to potential White Ferns captaincy.

Devine had relinquished T20 captaincy and was currently taking a wellbeing break from cricket and Kerr who had played for the White Ferns since 2016 was seen as a likely replacement as skipper.

"If I get asked to captain it is something to think about it's not something you just want to say yes or no to lightly because it is a huge honour to be able to captain New Zealand so it will take some thought and if I do it I want to make sure I'm ready.

"I'm really proud of Sophie for what she's done to step away for now and it's her story to tell but wellbeing comes first and I think in sport sometimes you look at athletes and think they've got to do their job first but they're also people and for her to make that courageous call to put herself first it's inspiring."

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