Banned over $2 bet on Black Caps
Redeemed White Ferns bowler Hayley Jensen says she can’t remember placing the $2 bet that saw her banned from the sport she loves.
Selected for the White Ferns upcoming T20 series against West Indies, Jensen is grateful to be back playing international cricket.
But it’s been a long time coming after the ACT Meteors medium pace bowler was banned by Australian Cricket from all forms of the game for six months after placing a $2 bet on Australian betting website Sports Bet.
Her suspension period was followed by 18 months on probation where she was allowed to play cricket, under supervision.
By placing a $2 bet on the Black Caps men’s match against Australia at the Gabba in November 2015, she ran foul of Cricket Australia’s anticorruption code, which forbids gambling on the sport.
While the sentence has been served, Jensen claims she has no memory of placing the bet or even what match the ban was over.
‘‘I’m pretty sure it was a test match between Australia and New Zealand, I’m not sure which game it was.
‘‘Well, that’s the thing. I don’t actually remember placing the bet so I tried to do a bit of research around to see if I could possibly get out of it, because I don’t actually know when it happened or anything like that.’’
Jensen tried to prove she was innocent by researching the timing of the bet, but the ban was issued after she was unable to meet an Australian Cricket deadline.
She said her Sports Bet account was on her iPad so it could have been anyone.
‘‘The thing is you don’t have to put any passwords in or anything to actually activate it.’’
The 25-year-old initially downloaded the application on her phone to make some easy wins with horse racing and has since deleted it.
‘‘I’m not a bettor and so I only had $10 on the account because I was bored one day and I just placed a few bets on races and stuff like that so I could get instant reward or loss, but yeah, this other bet was made on a completely different day at like 11pm at night type thing, which is kind of out of character.
‘‘I had flatmates and stuff at the time and I asked them and they don’t remember anything so yeah, I don’t know.’’
Although Jensen has put the episode behind her, she said the feeling was still raw and not something she would forget in a hurry.
The ban left her feeling out of the loop with cricket and on the outer circle as she was not allowed to associate with her teammates or coaches.
‘‘It’s just one of those things where something is so small that you don’t even realise at the time. That’s probably why I don’t know how it happened because it was something so small that you don’t actually think about or remember...’’
Jensen said she would train either by herself at the nets or with her partner Nicola Hancock, who plays for the ACT Meteors.
On top of the ban, she suffered a season-ending injury – tearing an oblique muscle. Commonly suffered by bowlers, the injury is known as side strain.
At no point did she consider throwing in the towel, because playing for the White Ferns had been a childhood dream.
She is grateful to finally be called in to the squad by Haidee Tiffen.
She was surprised when she received a call from Tiffen this year, but felt completely within her depth playing at international level as cricket in Australia had given her more exposure to better players.
Jensen was one of the Melbourne Renegades’ stars in this year’s Women’s Big Bash League and is also the first woman to ever score a century for the Melbourne Cricket Club.
For the past three years, Jensen has lived and played in Australia. She’s now settled in Canberra, where she’s just finished the women’s domestic cricket season with the Meteors.
After being dropped by New Zealand in 2014, accepting a place in the White Ferns wasn’t a clear and easy decision. She said she would take a substantial pay cut while on national duty.
‘‘It was definitely a big decision and one I had to talk to a lot of people over, but I definitely just went with my heart and my childhood dream.’’