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[with Emily Drumm]

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This is the second in a series of interviews CricInfo are conducting during the tournament build-up with the leading players from the participating nations.

As captain of the CLEAR White Ferns, leading New Zealand batsman Emily Drumm has extra pressure on her shoulders for the CricInfo Women's World Cup. A star player from a young age - selected to play for Auckland at age 16 and New Zealand at 18 - there has always been an expectation on Drumm to perform. In front of her home crowds and in the game's biggest event, that expectation has never been greater than now.

In the brief opportunities that she has been handed to appear in the longer form of the game during her career, she has managed to set the record for the most runs in a Test match by one batsman with 223 (161* and 62* against Australia at Christchurch in 1995), and she also possesses the highest Test average of any player to have appeared in more than one match.

Also useful with the ball in hand as a partnership breaking leg spinner, Drumm has even enjoyed the rare feat of taking a One-Day International hat-trick (having snared the wickets of Zoe Goss, Jo Garey and Joanne Broadbent in succession while taking 3-22 against Australia at Adelaide in 1996).

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

BATTING M I NO Runs HS Ave 100 50 Ct St Tests 5 6 3 433 161* 144.33 2 2 - - One-Day Internationals 56 51 5 1286 88* 27.95 - 8 16 - World Cups 13 9 0 201 69 22.33 - 2 3 -
BOWLING O M R W Ave Best 5w SR Econ Tests 88 30 175 2 87.50 1-24 - 264.0 1.98 One-Day Internationals 229 51 659 29 22.72 4-31 - 47.4 2.87 World Cups 42 17 68 6 11.33 2-10 - 42.0 1.61

CricInfo New Zealand's Senior Editor Lynn McConnell caught up with Emily 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: 20 minutes 27 seconds]

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LM: Right Emily, as captain of the home team for the Women's World Cup, you face an extra burden of thinking ahead and so forth. How much of your attention is focused now on November?

ED: You mean in a 24 hour day?

LM: Yes!

ED: Shall I say 16? No! Obviously I work full time, in Auckland. I've actually just got a promotion so it's made things a hell of a lot harder than it needs to be! I'd have to say at least six times a week I'm training, sometimes seven, depending on what our plans are, in terms of hours given, but it varies. You think about it so many times. You get a phone call and it just distracts you from your workload, which is sometimes nice but sometimes you need to get things done in the office. On average a day, it'd probably have to be three or four hours a day that I've put into thought processes, training, just thinking about things that I need to get ready for. You just have to do it when you're captain, there's so much more to think about rather than just your own game.

LM: Do you enjoy that, that extra pressure?

ED: I do, but I've always been quite an individual player who has really looked after my game, but has tried to help other people from time to time if I think they've needed it. It's a little bit different. I only had my first year leading for New Zealand last year, and you can not even think to compare that to captaining at first-class level. Totally different kettle of fish. It's just a much more high intensity pressure situation where you have got to call the shots quickly. You have got to be on the ball, because you're playing against better players - you have got to have better plans. You have got to be more equipped to deal with any catastrophes that can happen. Whereas in first-class cricket sometimes we get shielded from that a little bit.

LM: Has it had any effect on your own play? Your batting last year perhaps wasn't as productive as it has been in the past. Was that a factor?

ED: I had a disappointing series against Australia. That was very disappointing. That's probably where a bit of my time goes! Part of my thought processes go towards that fairly quickly, when I think about what I want to do and think about how I want to play. I'm probably one of the most analytical persons there is in cricket today. Personally I don't share that with anyone, that's just myself - how I think about my game and what I can do to change it. Sometimes I can't put that into practice, but I try to. Disappointing against the Australians. Picked up against the Poms, got better, scored more consistently, but nowhere near what I think I should be scoring. I've had a very lean trot in the last two to three years and there are varying reasons behind that. I probably deserved more than what I got last year, through training and preparation. I thought I was better prepared for the series last year compared to possibly the year before, when we beat the Australians for the Rose Bowl in New Zealand. But then in saying that, I had the captaincy thrown upon me and we didn't have the easiest of times together, trying to play against Australia. There are endless reasons for that, for our disappointing performances. Through poor play, better opposition and being underprepared. But I think as a team we've tried to address that and come back with options, alternatives and that's what we've been doing month after month after month so far this year to try and change it. So we've got plans; we've got something to fall back on if some things don't go well.

LM: Obviously that first game against Australia is a big one. Nine times at World Cups against Australia for only one win. Does that come into your thinking?

ED: That's pretty scary! That one time I'd like to say we bowled them out for under 100 - that's all I'd really like to remember about that! Australia, they're obviously the top dogs. We're not actually trying to worry about them too much. What we're trying to do is we're trying to practise so that we've got options when we play them - of scoring more runs. The problem in this last series against them in February was we struggled to score runs. We're trying to develop ways to score 30 or 40 more runs and give our bowlers a chance to defend something, whereas we were asking our bowlers to perform miracles. In the past we had done it, but in the last three or four years the women's game has stepped up another notch. The top dogs, which is us and Australia, have gone up another notch and left the other teams behind a little bit.

LM: What sort of financial commitment have you had to make to the World Cup yourself? Financial and time I suppose.

ED: I'm pretty lucky, I've got a really good employer, Crown Worldwide Movers - got to get that bit in there! - who support me 100 per cent. They are fantastic. I've been with them for three and a half years. They've given me a licence to play cricket and work for them full time when I'm not playing. Cricket hasn't taken me away from my job horrendously. You're not talking four or five months in the year. This year is an exception because we've doubled up on our World Cup and our calendar for our usual season playing time. This year in total will probably be about two and a half months, which it was when I started with them three and a half years ago, when I went to India which was about four or five weeks. They are really good. They've given me time off whenever I need it for cricket. I don't lose anything by taking time off. They're very supportive, they're giving me full pay.

LM: What do you expect from New Zealand's conditions at the tournament? Are what you're going to strike at Lincoln and at Hagley pretty much what you'd struck in the past?

ED: The beauty of playing there is we've had a bit of practice on that particular ground where there's two ovals. The second oval being the main oval where it has only really been developed in the last 12 months, in preparation for this World Cup. The tracks will be hard and fast. Simple as that.

LM: You enjoy that?

ED: That's great, yep, that's what we want. The slower the track is, the harder it is for the women's game to play properly, because we don't have that huge strength to compensate for it. So therefore you end up with a dour 150 or 160 scrap. Whereas we want to get 220 or 230 to create a really good game, and that's what we'll be aiming for against the top teams.

LM: Obviously you expect Australia to be the tough competition but how about the other nations - England, India, South Africa?

ED: There's probably only two or three teams who can really win this World Cup. That's no disrespect to the other teams, but realistically there's only Australia and us who are real hot contenders, and it's a dogfight between India and England who I'd class as third equal. But in saying that, India are what I'd call dark horses. They are probably unpredictable because we haven't seen much of them, and I wouldn't be surprised if they come out and cause an upset. We tied with them at the last World Cup. We got a wicket on the last ball of the game to tie the match - and ultimately we won actually through. They had a rained out game and we played and won, so it was very close. So, in saying that, I think there's really only three teams who can possibly win it. It just depends on how the teams adapt to the conditions. It'll probably be best suited to teams who have got the stronger batting lineups because the wickets will be more conducive to good batting. It probably will be hard yakka for a lot of the bowlers so it'll really come down to who will be the most miserly bowling attack as well will have a bit of a say.

LM: How much impact do you expect the tournament being held in New Zealand to have - on women's cricket and women's sport?

ED: I think it'll be huge because it's really our only summer sport where we can quite openly say we've got a World Cup. Softball will play a World Series, but unfortunately our softball girls aren't in the top dogs of their sport. I think they've dropped down a few rungs on the ladder, for reasons I don't really know why, but they are going to the Olympics. But it'll give us a chance to really put our game on the map, and entice a lot of women who think tennis is one of the only summer sports. But also to get the younger kids who we have developed after we were involved in the 1993 World Cup and the 1997 World Cup, where we got to the final both times. We created a huge awareness then of the games, and now it'll be limitless. It'll be on TV. It'll be in the paper. There'll just be opportunities for kids to meet the players, and it's a shame it's all in Christchurch because we don't get to take our game to major centres other than Christchurch.

LM: Though there are some warm up games around the countryside aren't there?

ED: Yeah, Timaru and Oamaru. So yes and no. It will be huge. I think it will be really big. Because we've had the netball World Cup and I think New Zealand's really looking for a big winner. We're holding out for someone to come along and say "we're world champions" - and I'd just so dearly love that to be us.

LM: Looking back a few years now to the merger of New Zealand men's and women's cricket. How much of an impact has that made for you guys?

ED: Unbelievable. Because without their financial support - they're going into the hundreds of thousands of dollars to put on this tournament - we wouldn't be able to have that. There's just no way we'd be able to come down here six times this winter - you think of all the costs of the air fares, the accommodation, the facilities - huge amounts of money going into making sure that we get everything possible that will help us in our preparation so we're ready to play our best cricket. You can't ever thank them enough. It's just huge. We're not professionals or anything like that, so they demand more time off us as a result of their involvement, so you can't argue.

LM: Players you expect to make an impact, firstly in your own team. Any players you expect to come through?

ED: Well, Debbie Hockley will be. She'll be at the top of the list on most people's lips, I'd say, for one player to excel. Hard to say, but Katrina Withers [now Keenan] and Rachel Pullar will be our two strike bowlers. I'm really not looking for any stars in our team. I'm just looking for an absolute team performance because if you know you get a complete team performance, you'll win. More times out than not you will win, and I'm not looking for individual stars. But obviously Debbie and myself will be hugely responsible for scoring runs, which I don't mind that responsibility. I really enjoy the challenge and love to get out there and lead from the front. I was talking to the girls yesterday - leading from the front is my motto, whether it's bowling, fielding, batting, speaking! So without trying to be too individualistic, it's pretty important that, apart from those key players, that we've got our solid players doing the business - doing the Gavin Larsen role, the "no frills" role, if you like. Doing the donkey work.

LM: What about the opposition players that we can expect to stand out and make an impact?

ED: Oh god, the whole Aussie team! No, the Australian team are a very well organised, well drilled side. They, like us, have a couple of key players that they rely on to score the bulk of their runs - Belinda Clark and Karen Rolton - they are their key players. We struggle to get Belinda Clark out below 50. If we get her out for 40 it's almost like a victory to us. She's a really good player, she hardly ever plays a false shot. Then they've got their bowlers, they've got Cathryn Fitzpatrick. They have got a couple of really good fielders, Olivia Magno. They have got a couple of key players that will always stand up and count for them. Very rarely do they underperform or let their side down. So when they're having their off day, god you've got to take advantage of it. You can't afford to sit back and wait for let them to lie down and die, because they don't. We know what they're like. They were so determined against us in February. They had played England beforehand so they were so ready for us, whereas the season before it was vice-versa. We had played South Africa before they had played us, so we were match ready at international level. With the preparation that we've had this year, we're going to have probably about 10 matches before we play a game. We will have given ourselves the best opportunity to be ready, which makes it a really enthralling opening for the World Cup.

LM: Do you still feel a barrier of acceptance from the New Zealand public overall to the women's team?

ED: Not really, because we haven't really been out in the public. We haven't had our profile that has allowed us to create that. There is a little bit of that - some guys are "oh, women's cricket", but every time they come and watch a game, when you tell them to come watch a game, they are just pleasantly surprised. That's a victory to us, but we don't care. It's important that we play to the best to our ability and we show a really good game of sport to all people. Most women are very open to the fact of women's sport, you can understand. You do get your guys who make the odd smart-arsed comment. They don't even need to say it - you sort of know! We're not really worried about it. If New Zealand Cricket didn't back us, then you think they don't really care or they don't think it's worthy of putting so much time and effort into it. But they are so 100 per cent behind us, and that gives us the belief that we have got a future for the game. We wouldn't be slaving our guts out there for nothing. The end reward is so big and we know that if we win, we will not go and gain any huge hero status or anything like that, but we will be looked upon as a very special achievement for a New Zealand team - because no-one else wins any bloody world championships these days, we all lose in the final! We've got to shake off that bridesmaid tag as well. You know, second, second, second, lose to Australia, lose to Australia.

LM: One final question, would you prefer to play more Test cricket?

ED: I get asked that all the time - "how many Test matches have you played?" - and I bring up the huge number of five! I've been playing for New Zealand for, this will be my ninth season, and I've played five Test matches - whoop de do! My Test average is very inflated, it's one hundred and something, but that's because I've had not outs and I've done really well in Test matches. But it hasn't really crossed my mind. I love watching Test match cricket. Obviously I understand the game and understand the little games inside the Tests. I'm not really bothered by it. I don't go "oh god, I really want to play a Test match". I really enjoy one-day cricket, but it would be nice to play just a one-off here and just challenge people, because one-day cricket is very unpredictable. It's such a "smash dash" game that a lot of the lesser players of that style of cricket won't cope. They don't have the flair in their game to adapt to one-day cricket. As you know, in the men's game there's different types of players that suit Test and different types of players that suit one-day cricket. In that regard, yeah, I wouldn't mind playing but it doesn't bother me. I don't even care. I don't go "oh damn, we're not playing a Test match this summer". But I do like it when on a full tour. On a full tour you may as well play both forms of the game and we did that in England in 1996. So it would be really good to do a full tour of Australia, or something like that, and play a Test match. But it's a crowd thing, and it's a money thing as well, so if we're going to get more value for money then stick to one-day cricket.

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

ED: That's OK.

LM: All the best in November.

ED: Thank you!