White Ferns get business flights

ben.strang@stuff.co.nz

When the White Ferns board their flight to Ireland at the end of the month, they’ll be doing so in style.

New Zealand Cricket have upgraded their travel policies for their women’s cricketers, meaning any long haul travel will now be in business class.

The Black Caps have flown business class to overseas matches for years, but as recently as November, when they played Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates, the White Ferns flew economy.

In the past couple of months, New Zealand Cricket’s travel policy has changed as part of wider improvements following Sarah Beaman’s damning Women and Cricket report in November 2016.

‘‘After the Women and Cricket report came out, we’ve been attempting to improve engagement with women’s cricketers,’’ New Zealand Cricket spokesman Richard Boock said.

‘‘[The travel policy changed] in the past few months. It’s in line with our increased cricket.’’

Beaman’s independent report had found 90 per cent of cricket clubs didn’t have women’s only teams, and more than half of clubs didn’t offer women’s cricket at all.

The organisation was urged to improve the number of women in governance positions, and increase the number of women in coaching and umpiring.

Beaman told Radio New Zealand in November that New Zealand Cricket had ‘‘responded incredibly well’’ in the year following the report.

But that month, the White Ferns had quietly travelled to Dubai in the economy cabin, something their male counterparts wouldn’t have had to do.

While the White Ferns’ current Memorandum of Understanding doesn’t require the team to fly business class, it’s an improvement New Zealand Cricket have now committed to.

The news has come as a surprise to the White Ferns players.

All rounder Amy Satterthwaite found out about the upgraded flights when contacted by Stuff, and said it was ‘‘fantastic’’ news for the players. investment in women’s Amy Satterthwaite

‘‘From an athlete point of view, it’s the high performance side of things,’’ Satterthwaite said.

‘‘Flying business will really help when we get to the other side. We’ve got some tall timber in the team and it will be very beneficial for them to have that extra room.’’

Satterthwaite was one of the White Ferns players who flew business to the Women’s Cricket World Cup in 2017, at the expense of the International Cricket Council, and said the benefits are huge.

‘‘You get off the plane feeling a bit fresher. Nobody likes jetlag, but you feel that bit better getting off and it helps your recovery, getting ready for that first game.’’

The ICC only sent the women’s teams to the World Cup in business class because of an uproar over their treatment of women’s teams during the 2016 Twenty20 World Cup.

For that tournament, men’s sides were sent business class while women were in economy. After New Zealand Cricket and other nations complained, the ICC vowed to provide business class flights for both sexes to ICC tournaments.

Satterthwaite said the improvements in the treatment of women in cricket over the past 12 months have been huge.

‘‘Since that report came out, it brought to the fore the issues that were in the women’s game, and they aren’t being ignored anymore.

‘‘New Zealand Cricket have been really proactive which has been fantastic.’’

NZC spokeman Boock said there were ‘‘a lot of things we had to work on after the Women and Cricket report in late 2016, authored by Sarah Beaman’’.

‘‘It’s not something you can do all at once, but we’ve been slowly working to improve every aspect of the women’s game.

‘‘It’s an important step. It can make a big difference to performance.’’

New Zealand Cricket employees also fly business class for flights more than five hours long

The White Ferns’ tour of Ireland and the United Kingdom runs from June 6 until July 13. They play Ireland in a Twenty20 and three ODIs, before playing South Africa and England in a Twenty20 tri-series, and England in three ODIs.