One of the latest cricketers to earn a White Ferns contract, wicketkeeper Jess McFadyen has a colourful sporting background - having spent four years playing hockey overseas and now pushing football for a living.
When Jess McFadyen left Wellington for Winston-Salem, North Carolina, she must have been dreaming of a future in the Black Sticks.
The talented young athlete, who'd collected a number of sports in her kit bag, had taken up a four-year hockey scholarship at Wake Forest University, renowned for its strong field hockey programme.
McFadyen prospered in her years at Wake Forest, becoming a critical goal scorer and defender for the Deacon Demons, and adopting a strong work ethic.
But when it was time to come home in 2015, McFadyen had a sporting change of heart.
“I'd been so immersed in hockey for four years, that it was time to give my body a rest and change tack,” she says. “I’d always loved playing cricket, so I was really keen to jump back into it.”
Now, after playing her way into the Wellington Blaze and evolving into a leading runscorer and the side's No.1 wicketkeeper, McFadyen has been offered a White Ferns contract for the first time.
“It’s one of those things you never expect to happen,” she admits. “But the last two seasons with the Blaze I’ve had more opportunities – I’ve been able to open the batting and I’ve had more time with the gloves behind the stumps.
“Nothing beats game experience, especially being able to keep in a game with, in my case, four or five top White Ferns bowling at you. And the more opportunities I get, the more it’s all falling into place.”
And of course, her timing couldn’t have been better with the World Cup 2022 just around the corner.
She now has to figure out how to balance her new cricket commitments with her job in yet another sport – working in marketing and communications for Capital Football. She’s lucky, she says, that her boss is former Black Cap, Richard Reid.
“He looks kindly on my training. He understands what’s needed,” she says with a laugh.
Wellington-born and raised, McFadyen started her sporting career as a softballer, but switched to cricket at Onslow College “because I wanted to bat longer”.
She was playing hockey, too, following in the footsteps of her mum, Rosemary, and dad, Malcolm, who represented New Zealand at age-group level.
McFadyen played in Wellington age-group sides right up to under 21s, sometimes alongside a woman who would ultimately influence her cricket career, White Ferns captain Sophie Devine.
Her priorities were different then, McFadyen admits. “I giggle at the time I left what you’d call a cricket emerging players camp to come back to Wellington for a game of hockey,” she says.
McFadyen moved to Samuel Marsden Collegiate for her final year, and it was a chance conversation overheard in a school hallway that put her on a path to the United States.
“I was talking to a mate about wanting to go to college in the US, when a teacher walked past and heard me,” McFadyen says.
That teacher was Nicola Kaiwai, a former top New Zealand tennis player, who'd taken up a sports scholarship at Wake Forest University.
“She said Wake Forest had a really good hockey programme and she knew the coach, so she sent her an email,” McFadyen says. "It’s outrageous how these things happen, isn’t it?"
McFadyen recalls her four years in North Carolina as one of the best experiences of her life. “The whole time, you’re living in a professional environment. The resources, the media, the schedules, the travel,” she explains.
“One of the biggest things I learned over there was a work ethic. It wasn’t uncommon to have three trainings a day; you’re a fulltime student and a fulltime athlete.”
McFadyen graduated with a degree in studio art and communications. On the field, she changed her game, moving from striker into defence.
“Our team was always really competitive, playing in the strong Atlantic Coast Conference, and my head coach and the players around me taught me a lot in terms of development and how to push boundaries,” she says. “I had some fantastic influences.”
But by the end of her time, a series of “gnarly” injuries – including two prolapsed discs in her spine – meant McFadyen was ready to take a break from the rigours of hockey and throw herself into a different code.
Not that cricket isn’t demanding on an athlete’s body. McFadyen has just undergone surgery for a torn meniscus in her knee, ruling her out of the first White Ferns winter training camp at Lincoln University next week. It’s frustrating, she says, but the best time to get it fixed.
“People ask me do you regret going to the States to play hockey when you could have stayed here and maybe this would all have happened a few years earlier? And I say, 'No, not a chance',” she says. “I’m so thankful for that experience, it blew my mind, and also thankful I could come back and play cricket.”
McFadyen is one of three players offered a White Ferns contract for the first time, along with Northern Spirit's Brooke Halliday, who made her White Ferns debut last season, and Canterbury Magicians all-rounder Frankie Mackay, who earned her White Ferns recall against England in February.
For as long as McFadyen can remember, she's been a wicketkeeper. “I just want to be involved in the game as much as possible,” she says.
The White Ferns contract - which brings with it an annual retainer payment of between $44,000 and $64,000 - also means McFadyen will get to train alongside experienced New Zealand wicketkeeper Katey Martin. That's something she’s really looking forward to.
“She’s been a White Fern for a long time now, so I hope to tap into her game nous, better understand nuances and sharpen up some technique. Look at the whole picture,” McFadyen says.
She also realises she will learn the difference between domestic and international cricket.
“You can certainly see there’s a massive step up, especially in the way the current White Ferns who are in the Blaze train in our squad. The different intensity and mentality and professionalism when they come back into the group lifts us all to another level. So I know where I have to get to.”
White Ferns coach Bob Carter believes there needs to be more development of wicketkeepers rising through the ranks, and McFadyen has shown her abilities in both the Dream11 Super Smash and 50-over Hallyburton Johnstone Shield for the past two summers.
“She has a wise head on her shoulders and will be an asset to the group, I’m sure,” Carter says.
It’s not only with the gloves that McFadyen has made an impression. In the 2019-20 season, she smashed the eighth-highest score in New Zealand’s women’s List A cricket, with 153 not out against Otago. That put her in the company of her old hockey team-mate Devine.
Last summer, she was the third leading runscorer in the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield racking up 397 runs.
She’d like to think she’s repaying the people who’ve helped her get this far in cricket. That includes two former Blaze coaches – Mark Borthwick, who she trained with when she was young, and her batting coach Ivan Tissera. Then there’s Blaze Fitness trainer Andrew Smith, who’s helped her in the gym. And of course her family, who've kept her grounded.
“It would be so cool to see all that work we’ve put in together coming off to get to that next level, and represent my country,” she says.
And to do so at a World Cup, at home, would be beyond her wildest dreams.
“You never want to get ahead of yourself, but it would be an amazing experience. There’s no bigger carrot than a World Cup at home to get you to push your boundaries,” she says.
“You’ve got the Rugby World Cup and Football World Cup here in the next two years as well; what an amazing time for women’s sport in New Zealand. To hopefully be part of that is really cool.”
