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[with Debbie Hockley]

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This is the first in a series of interviews CricInfo will conduct during the tournament build-up with the leading players from the participating nations.

Debbie Hockley is widely acknowledged as the premier batsman in New Zealand's women's cricket, and one of the finest players in the history of the women's game. In 1979, she made her international debut at the tender age of just 16, and is now in the 22nd and possibly final year of her illustrious career.

The scorer of more runs in international cricket than any other player, Hockley has notched up more than 100 One-Day International appearances, being the first to reach the milestone in Melbourne in February earlier this year.

In World Cups, Hockley also leads the way - with the most runs scored in the history of the tournament. She currently stands level with England's Jan Brittin in terms of the most appearances (36) made by an individual. And come 29 November, she is also poised to move ahead of Brittin for participation in the highest number of World Cups.

Career Record (up to and including 22 February 2000):

BATTING M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct St Tests 19 29 4 1301 126* 52.04 4 7 9 - One-Day Internationals 106 104 16 3846 117 43.70 4 32 39 - World Cups 36 35 7 1351 100* 48.25 2 9 11 -
BOWLING O M R W Ave Best 5w SR Econ Tests 82 38 146 5 29.20 2-9 - 98.4 1.78 One-Day Internationals 241.4 36 826 19 43.47 3-49 - 76.3 3.41 World Cups 58 14 150 6 25.00 1-0 - 58.0 2.58

CricInfo New Zealand's Senior Editor Lynn McConnell caught up with Debbie shortly after the launch of the New Zealand women's team as the CLEAR White Ferns, to chat with her about the forthcoming CricInfo Women's World Cup, to be held at Lincoln and Christchurch from 29 November to 23 December 2000.

Listen to Full Interview Audio

[Duration: 13 minutes 14 seconds]

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LM: Thanks very much for your time, Debbie. This is your fifth World Cup.

DH: That's right, yes.

LM: Is there anything different about this one or is the fact that it's at home make it easier?

DH: Well, it will be my second World Cup at home. I guess the fact that it's in New Zealand, again, is quite different from the first time I played in a World Cup because New Zealand women's cricket was administered by the New Zealand Women's Cricket Council, whereas now with the amalgamation that happened in 1993, it's all New Zealand Cricket. So I think the scale will be much larger in terms of how it's all put together. Although, in saying that, back in 1982 we travelled the length and breadth of New Zealand in the World Cup, so I thought that from an association who didn't have paid professionals that they did a fantastic job. But I'm pretty sure that this World Cup out here will be just as good, even better.

LM: That obviously begs the question about the amalgamation. What have been the benefits as far as you're concerned?

DH: Many. I think simply because New Zealand Cricket, it's a professional organisation and the people who are in the administration, that's what they do full time. Whereas in the time before the amalgamation, all the people on the New Zealand Women's Cricket Council - a lot of them were players and they were nearly all volunteers. I think that's really hard to try and do both sorts of things, when you're working full time and trying to administer the game or playing. So while they did a great job, and I've had lots and lots of years before 1993 - in that sort of less administrative era - having being playing in the last seven years or so, I feel like we've been treated like princesses really, because we've just had so much more offered to us.

LM: Has it made it easier to stay playing?

DH: Yes, certainly in my case. I'm sure I probably wouldn't have been able to keep playing if New Zealand Cricket hadn't offered me that contract nearly two and a half years ago now, because I was just finding it far too difficult to work full time and maintain my training commitments. So for me it's been absolutely outstanding - something I never would've dreamed of and it's just turned my life around in the last couple of years.

LM: Preparing for this World Cup, you're obviously near the end of your career, has it been harder to prepare or is it just another World Cup or is there something special about this?

DH: I've been really, really looking forward to it. Every series is really special, but the fact that it's a World Cup, I guess that the exciting factor about it is that you play a lot of different teams. I always love playing against Australia, but having the variation is really nice. In the last couple of years it's been really good playing England this year and South Africa last year, just to have a bit of variance and to play against different players and have different challenges. Every series is great, but I think that for New Zealand, for New Zealand cricket and for the public, it'll be fantastic to have it basically on our own back door here.

LM: Do you feel that women's cricket is developed in the public's perception as well as it could've, or are you still sort of Cinderellas?

DH: No, personally I think that we've done really well. I think that with the naming of the CLEAR White Ferns that that will really add to the identity, because there's no doubt that saying "the CLEAR New Zealand Women's Cricket Team" was a real mouthful. Just like we were saying at the launch this morning, the Black Caps [New Zealand men's cricket team] identity has really taken on, and if you just talk about "Black Caps", it's like the Silver Ferns [New Zealand women's netball team] - people know that you're talking about cricket or netball or the All Blacks. I mean no-one talks about the New Zealand rugby team - they talk about the All Blacks. I think that the public will probably run with that, and the media will take that on board. I think New Zealand Cricket's been really pleased with the media response, and I think that it will really take off. Personally I think we've done really well media-wise, especially in Christchurch. I think that there are possibly still some areas in New Zealand where women's sport in general has not had the same type of coverage as the men's, and I guess that's an area for concern. But I think in Christchurch we're pretty well served down here.

LM: What about your own preparation now - what have you been working on? Obviously batting?

DH: Yes, batting and fielding, a little bit of bowling - all the things I'm told to work on. Basically I've got the luxury of having the afternoon to do some of my training, so I've been trying to get out to the HPC [New Zealand Cricket High Performance Centre] out at Lincoln at least once a week to work with Mike Shrimpton out there and that's been excellent. Or, if he's not available, at least the ball machine is out there, and having the self-feeder is fantastic because I can just set it up and away we go, which is brilliant. I've taken my mother out there once when the ball machine wasn't working to get her to feed the balls and that was excellent. I've really just been trying to do what everyone else has been doing, but I've had the luxury of being able to fit it in during the day as opposed to after work, which has been really good.

LM: Mike Shrimpton's made the point that he's putting a lot of emphasis on fielding. How do you feel that has worked out so far?

DH: I think that we've probably been practising different skills perhaps more than we have in the past. What we've been doing is: all the groups around the country - for those who don't live in isolated centres - have been getting together and doing regular fielding practice. For example, in Christchurch, we go out to Lincoln every Monday night, and as a group we're doing an hour's fielding training specifically. I think things like accuracy at throwing at the stumps has improved a lot. Just fielding the ball cleaner has been really good, because we've tried to practise it a lot - and practise it where it's being smacked at you. I think that if you practise specifically you can't help but improve. I guess the proof in the pudding, for all of our skill practice, will be what happens when we get outside. It's been a long year to be inside, and it's quite difficult to gauge where you are really when you're not able to get outside. So hopefully if our fine weather comes back, in the next three or four weeks we'll be able to do some of that practice outside and get a gauge of where we are fielding-wise.

LM: From your previous experience at World Cups, what are sort of the things New Zealand has got to watch in the lead up to it? Obviously there's an excitement and a bit of pressure put on because you're the home team, so how do you counter that?

DH: Yes, that's right. In the last camp we've made a point of identifying some of the areas we thought that could be difficulties, just with simply being a home tournament. That does create a lot of pressures in itself. Us as a team, we're going to be together basically for six weeks, based out at Lincoln. Although, we're going to have a few days off between our build-up against the English team and when the World Cup actually starts, which I think is really sensible because you can't live in each others' pockets. We've just identified that there will be distractions from family and friends, media and just people in New Zealand that want the team to do well. The fact that when you're at home, those things are much more difficult than when you're overseas, because you don't have a lot of those pressures. So you tend to be much more unified as a team without those distractions. I think that the only way we can combat it is acknowledge what the difficulties are going to be and to brainstorm about solutions. If you can try and prepare that way, at least you've got no stone unturned and you know what you're going to have to do. It's sort of equated a bit like going to India - that if you go to India, you know it's going to be a really difficult country to tour. But if you can identify some of those difficulties before you get there, once you get there it's not such a shock to you. I think that's just being smart and that's what our management has encouraged us to do, which I think is really sensible.

LM: Looking ahead to the tournament itself, obviously Australia are the kingpins and you have them first up, is that a good thing or a bad thing first up?

DH: It could be either, really, couldn't it? I suppose the only difference with if you play them later on in the competition is that you get a bit more match practice. But in saying that, I think that from New Zealand Cricket management's point of view, they've tried to give us the best type of build-up that we can have, with some practice games throughout October. We've got a Possibles-Probables game at the end of October and then we've got three one-dayers against England, and I don't know what Australia's build-up is going to be. It could be that we might have the edge on them with having had more match practice - in which case why not play them first up? Also I think that part of the programming of that, was that it's the only game being played on that day, and for the start of the World Cup it's probably better to go off with a bang, so to speak - having a really good intense game rather than, say, have us play one of the lesser teams like Holland, which might be a bit of a cakewalk. You may as well grab people's attention right from the start - you've got to play them some time. With our preparation, maybe we might have the edge because we might've had a little bit more match play, in which case I think that that's probably a benefit.

LM: Looking ahead to the players in the tournament, any particular players you think will be worth keeping an eye on?

DH: Hard to say in our team without the team being named - that's really difficult because I don't know what the composition of the team will be. In the other teams, I think that we know pretty well Australia's players. They are a formidable team at the moment, because I think they were really stung by their loss to us in the Shell Rose Bowl last season, not this one past, and they worked really hard on their game - which we in turn have had to do since we lost to them this season. The English team, it was really good to play against them, we hadn't played against them for quite a few seasons, and they've got some good young spin bowlers. They've got one girl, Nicki Shaw, who is really quite quick, so she'll be interesting. But personally, I think one of the biggest challenges will be playing against India, because they have real quality wrist spinners and that's not something that we come across very often. I think that when we've played India in the past few games, which have been over a lot of years, the last time we played them was really the only one game in the 1997 World Cup where we tied with them - they are always a formidable team because they basically have players that we don't come across. Rather than individuals, I think that those teams are going to present our biggest challenges.

LM: You know Lincoln pretty well. What can we expect from the conditions there and which teams will they favour?

DH: We've only played on Lincoln Green, we haven't played on the Brierley [BIL] Oval yet, but I'm imagining that both blocks will be pretty much the same. Playing on Lincoln Green, I think that it would have to be one of the best pitches in the country, because it's hard and fast. I think it will suit teams like us and Australia who have got some quality fast bowlers, no doubt about that. I think they can look to get quite a bit of bounce out of those wickets. I guess that the harder the ball comes on, the harder it goes off! So, batting-wise, we're used to playing on Lincoln Green. It's a reasonably smallish ground, but that's quite nice. I can't imagine the Brierley Oval will be any different in terms of the block.

LM: Your own batting - what more do you want out of it?

DH: Oh, heaps. I'll never be satisfied with my batting. I think that the thing I'll be most disappointed with when I finish is that I always wished that I could've played better - that's just the way I am. What I'm looking to do is to try and bat better than I've ever batted before, and there's so much room for me to do that even more, which is really exciting. That's why I think I've really enjoyed training this year - I've been trying to work on some of my weaknesses, especially against quicker bowling and just trying to play spin bowlers better as well, because we're going to come up against a lot of both of those. It's been really exciting trying to develop those new shots. It's great, I'm so looking forward to seeing if I can play better than I've played before, that's the challenge for me.

LM: Will you finish at the World Cup?

DH: No, my goal is to play the World Cup, see how I get through it, and I'm probably going to have a little bit of a holiday after that, and then I'm simply going to readdress it from there. But I'm absolutely not going in with the idea of finishing at the end of the World Cup. I just think that's a bad thing to do. Not only for myself but for the team as well, so I'm completely open afterwards. If I decide after having had a little bit of a break that that will suit me, well then that's going to be an easy way to do it. If I played better than I've ever played before and we won the World Cup, and I'd already said I was going to retire, I'd be gutted! I would think that I would have to save face and carry on with it, and I don't think that it's ever the right thing to do until you've had a bit of a time to think about it.

LM: That's great, obviously you're looking forward to things.

DH: I am, yes, I really am. I've really enjoyed the training this year, and it's been exciting learning different things. I think with all the girls, it's been really good in the nets to see the batsmen are trying different types of shots, that's been really exciting. As I say, it'd be really nice to get outside and see if we can put some of these things into practice in a game.

LM: That's great, thanks very much for your time.

DH: No problem!