A familiar face will be missing from the CENTRAL HINDS cricket squad this summer. 

Booties are set to replace boundaries for NATALIE DODD and her husband, with their first child due later this year —  the 2021 and 2023 Hinds Player of the Year, wicketkeeper, top order batter and captain having opted out of the annual contracting process for the forthcoming season.

The Hinds are fresh off one of their best seasons. They stormed into the national Dream11 Super Smash Grand Final in the 2023/24 summer, then took a respectable midtable finish from a weather-affected one-day campaign.

Veteran performer Dodd has been an integral player and leader with many hats for the Hinds since she moved to CD from Northern Districts in 2018.

PHOTOSPORT

Dodd, 31, isn’t retiring but, for now, Central Districts High Performance Manager DAVE MEIRING says it will be a case of several players stepping up to perform her usual roles.

“As as team and an Association, first and foremost we’re obviously thrilled for Natalie and her husband at this special time in their lives,” said Meiring. 

“We completely support Natalie’s decision to focus on family this summer, and it now presents an opportunity for others to put everything they have learned from her into practice on the field.”

KATE GAGING | PHOTOSPORT

Since 2021, Dodd has had a wicketkeeping understudy in the form of young wicketkeeper-batter KATE GAGING. The 23-year-old from Nelson has accrued a dozen T20 and 10 one-day caps for the team over the ensuing seasons.

Gaging’s twin sister ANNA GAGING — a pace bowler, and last summer’s Mike Shrimpton Trophy Player of the Year, will join her sister in this summer’s contracted group, after having today been awarded a Central Hinds contract for the first time. 

Like her sister, Anna Gaging also debuted as a teenager on the rise in the 2020/21 season.

She now has five caps across the two formats that the Hinds play and took her maiden four-wicket haul (4/43 v Northern Districts) in the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield at New Plymouth this year.

ANNA GAGING IS A TWO-TIME WINNER

OF THE MIKE SHRIMPTON TROPHY

PLAYER OF THE YEAR AWARD

Anna Gaging is the only new name on the initial list of 12 players contracted for the 2024/25 season — with one name to be added later this month to fill the 13th and final spot in the contracted group. 

Each of the six Major Associations that comprise New Zealand cricket is allowed to contract 13 female players this year across two rounds, with the contracts designed to compensate players for the time spent away from their jobs and studies. 

In addition to the Hinds contracts, WHITE FERNS stars HANNAH ROWE and ROSEMARY MAIR are already contracted at NZC level, and will also be available to play for the Hinds when they're not on international duties. 

GEORGIA ATKINSON and MIKAELA GREIG

CELEBRATE A WICKET FROM HANNAH ROWE

- PHOTOSPORT

Of the squad named so far, Rowe has previously captained the team, but a captaincy announcement for the coming season will be made later this year after the squad has assembled for preseason camps. 

Last year’s trio of fresh young faces on the contracted list — Napier 19-year-old pace bowler ANIELA APPERLEY; Wairarapa’s young batting star and NZU19 rep EMMA McLEOD and Hawke’s Bay spinning allrounder FLORA DEVONSHIRE — have all retained their spots for the coming season, with the balance of the squad composed largely of experienced and familiar performers.

That includes Manawatū’s newest WHITE FERN MIKAELA GREIG, happily back for more — after a dream summer in which the 29-year-old made her New Zealand A and WHITE FERNS debuts, as well captaining New Zealand A to a Series win over England A, and touring England with the WHITE FERNS this winter. 

THREE HINDS LINE UP FOR THE WHITE FERNS | PHOTOSPORT

GEORGIA ATKINSON, Dodd and Greig were the Hinds’ three most prolific batters in last season’s one-day Hallyburton Johnstone Shield with just a handful of runs separating the trio, while overseas player HOLLY ARMITAGE showed the way during the Dream11 Super Smash campaign.

“The team’s performance in that campaign was one of the standouts of the 2023/24 summer,” said Meiring.

“We’ve got a group who understand what it takes now and can’t wait for a chance to be back on that stage and go one better this season.”

PHOTOSPORT

Dodd said while she would miss kitting up this season after 165 one-dayers and 123 T20 games since her 2007/08 debut, “Me and my plus one will be cheering the Hinds on!"

The Centrals Hinds’ and Central Stags’ season schedules will be released in the coming weeks, with the women’s Domestic season expected to commence with the free-admission Hallyburton Johnstone Shield as usual in November. 

The 13th Central Hinds contracted player is expected to be named on Tuesday, 27 August. 

2024/25 Contracted Squad

alphabetical order - one player to be added later this month

Aniela Apperley — Hawke’s Bay, right-arm pace bowler

Georgia Atkinson — Wairarapa, right-hand batter, leg-spin

Ocean Bartlett — Wairarapa, right-hand batter, leg-spin

Flora Devonshire — Hawke’s Bay, left-arm allrounder

Anna Gaging* — Nelson, right-arm pace bowler

Kate Gaging — Nelson, wicketkeeper, right-hand batter

Claudia Green — Nelson, right-arm swing bowler

Mikeala Greig — Manawatū, right-hand batter

Ashtuti Kumar — Manawatū, right-arm off-spin allrounder

Emma McLeod — Wairarapa, right-hand top order batter

Rosemary Mair (NZC contract) — Hawke’s Bay, right-arm pace bowler

Thamsyn Newton — Hawke’s Bay, right-hand batter

Hannah Rowe (NZC contract) — Manawatū, right-arm allrounder

Kerry Tomlinson — Hawke’s Bay, right-hand batter

* First-time contract

Unavailable: Natalie Dodd — Taranaki

ENQUIRE TODAY

Article added: Sunday 11 August 2024

Author: Margot Butcher

All images: Photosport | Published under licence or ©️Margot Butcher