Ferns coach keen to remain
The White Ferns camp will ‘‘leave no stone unturned’ in their review process after failing to make the playoff stages at the women’s cricket World Cup for the first time.
Coach Haidee Tiffen is keen to stay with the team, despite her under-performing side’s early exit at this month’s tournament in England.
Tiffen, who is holidaying in Europe, has been left wondering what if, as her White Ferns were knocked out prematurely by a crushing 186-run loss to India in their final group match.
This was billed as one of the best White Ferns sides to compete at a World Cup in recent years, so expectations were high from Tiffen and her coaching panel.
Cricket New Zealand will review what went wrong as well as look at the players and coaching personnel’s future with the team.
‘‘We are absolutely really disappointed, as we certainly know that as a team we can perform better than this. The general feeling around the camp is that we are all absolutely gutted.’’
As gutted as the side may be, this was the worst World Cup effort by any New Zealand women’s cricket side.
‘‘We will leave no stone unturned.’’
The review will look at Tiffen’s own role. The Timaru-raised former White Ferns captain revealed she would like to stay on and keep working with the White Ferns as ‘‘it was a great time to be involved in women’s cricket’’.
‘‘Absolutely, there will be a review of the players, myself. We all take full responsibility that we didn’t perform or stand up on the day.’’
Tiffen said there were positives to come out of the campaign with young stars Amelia Kerr and Hannah Rowe performing well.
Kerr was named as the 12th player in a tournament team picked by ESPNCricinfo. Tiffen said many of the experienced White Ferns failed to fire and they would be disappointed with that.
Tiffen’s side has been criticised by former White Ferns coach Warren Lees who said the side was overawed in the crunch games and failed to deal with the high expectations of the cricketing public.
New Zealand took an experienced side, boasting plenty of firepower with Lees believing it was their best chance to lift the silverware since 2000.
The White Ferns badly underperformed, losing to Australia, England and India, which saw them miss the semifinals.