Central Hinds Emerging Player of the Year CLAUDIA GREEN is about to add another feather to her cap — only this one’s going to be black, and definitely not green.

Today will see Claudia debut for New Zealand at the top level as the Indoor Cricket Trans-Tasman Series against Australia gets underway in Palmerston North — the best Indoor Cricket teams in the world at men’s, women’s and under-22 level about to put on a fantastic free show for the Manawatū public and, via a free livestream, the world this Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the Palmerston Indoor Sports Arena (PISA) on Church Street.

Claudia is one of two CD-based women in the senior NZ women’s Indoor team — alongside Melanie Driescher, and she’s one of a number of CD reps across all teams, including Nelson’s Saffron Wilson in the Women’s Under-22s (who kick off the action in the first match at 9am today) and Jarred McKay set to debut for the Men’s U-22s (from 10.30am).

Twenty-one-year-old Claudia represented New Zealand Under-22 at the last Indoor Cricket World Cup and finding out she’d been picked for the top side for the Trans-Tasmans was a proud moment.

“I was pretty excited!” says Claudia. “We’ve got a very strong team — and we’ll need that up against an Australian side that will be very well drilled and will provide a good fight. Australia is a force at all levels of Indoor Cricket but we’re feeling good and know that our preparation has put us in a good position to try and take them down!”

Lining up alongside Claudia will be a number of other names familiar from Super Smash and the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield — the likes of Samoa international Regina Lili’i (Northern Spirit), Auckland Hearts Skye Bowden, Natasha van Tilburg and Roz McNeill, Wellington Blaze’s Gemma Krebs.

“Hannah Rowe is also going to be stoked about the big focus on mighty Palmy North all week!” adds Claudia. Rowey isn’t playing indoor herself but will no doubt be out in support and from this Saturday 14 September — immediately following the end of the Indoor TransTasman Series — they will be reunited in the first Central Hinds training camp of the new season, also set for mighty Palmy North.

“So I’ll be hitting the ground running!” says Claudia. Is there good crossover?

“Yeah I find Indoor Cricket helps my outdoor. It’s definitely great for the fielding, good for your reflexes and hand-eye coordination.

“I also think it’s good for learning to deal with pressure as well. It’s a very high-intensity game in a confined space. It’s loud, it’s fast — a completely different atmosphere to outdoor cricket. That teaches you clarity, teaches you to maintain your focus and I feel like I take that into my outdoor game.”

Claudia is also the kind of sportswoman who likes to keep trainings rolling through winter instead of take a complete break “so it’s been good for me to have this goal and activity.”

In her fourth and final year of study towards a PE degree at the University of Otago, Claudia channels that training verve into outdoor training with Otago Cricket coach Mark Bracewell and Indoor training with the local men’s players when she’s in Dunedin, then stopping off in Christchurch as she’s commuting between Otago and Nelson to train with her Christchurch-based Canterbury indoor teammates.

The Indoor Cricket and outdoor cricket geographic representative boundaries are completely different — there’s no CD Indoor zone as such, so Nelson-based players like Claudia and Jarred tend to play for Indoor’s Southern/Canterbury zone at inter-provincial champs.

“But it works out well for me because I know people there,” says Claudia. “Indoor is quite popular in Nelson, although we’ve had a setback with our indoor centre burning down! That was a real shame for the players leading up to Provincials and Trans-Tasman obviously because it was perfectly set up for Indoor Cricket. Luckily we were able to train at the Indoor facility at Saxton Oval after that, but it wasn’t the same custom set-up.”

On hand to help the Kiwi women conquer the fearsome Aussies will be coach Natasha Williams who should have some good intel as a Kiwi based in New South Wales.

“She runs a pretty tight ship so I am sure she will have the low-down on everyone in the Aussie team for us!”

All four New Zealand Indoor teams got together a few days ago to train towards their first games this Thursday. Before that Claudia’s teammates were working regularly in their clusters — “the northern players from Auckland and nearby have been building up together for a while and I’ve had a couple of weekends in Christchurch with the Canterbury girls.”

The hope is with free admission, non-stop world class action, and the two top Indoor countries in the world reigniting a classic Trans-Tasman rivalry, the Palmy North public will stop by over the next three days to check it out.

“Indoor has a lot of buzz around it at the moment and it’s obviously been recognised recently as a pathway into the outdoor game,” adds Claudia. “It’s a really fun sport to play and I’d recommend to anyone to give it a go.”

She also can’t wait for the outdoor summer to roll around, with the Central Hinds — New Zealand’s one-day champions — set to play their first two rounds of the 2019/20 Hallyburton Johnstone Shield at Levin’s Donnelly Park on the weekend on 16 and 17 October (both matches against the Otago Sparks will be free admission).

“I caught up with some of the Hinds in Palmy over the winter and we had a good “Youngies” catch-up which was excellent!” says Claudia.

“I’m really looking forward to being back out there with them soon. I love the culture of the team — our team atmosphere is great so I’m sure it’s going to be another really good season.”

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Article added: Thursday 12 September 2019