Injured White Fern Frankie Mackay has turned a forgettable summer into a trailblazing commentary gig. And she’s also backing the White Ferns to recover from their shocking first-up loss at the T20 World Cup, she tells Merryn Anderson.
Frankie Mackay may be half a world away, on the comeback after ankle surgery, but she’s confident her White Ferns team-mates can still win the T20 World Cup in South Africa.
The White Ferns opened their World Cup campaign on Sunday morning against Australia, the world’s best team, and suffered their heaviest T20 runs loss - 97 in arrears.
But Mackay, who’s been in a moonboot since injuring her ankle in the first domestic game of the season, believes New Zealand can win the rest of their pool games, against South Africa, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, and make the semifinals.
“You’ve then just got to have two good days, you’ve got to win two games of cricket and all of a sudden you’re going home with a World Cup,” she says.
“I think they’re in a really good place. They’ve got a nice mix of youth and experience, and you only have to look at the spinners - the senior spinner is Melie Kerr at 22 - to know there’s some real youth and excitement in that team.”
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Kerr took three of the White Ferns’ nine wickets in a strong bowling and fielding performance against a quality side. But they were still unable to limit a few of the dangerous Aussie batters, as they reached 173 from their 20 overs.
It was the batting that let New Zealand down, all out for 76, with only three batters reaching double digits as openers Suzie Bates and Sophie Devine were both dismissed without scoring. But if those two get going in the rest of the tournament, Mackay backs the Ferns.
“Once you’ve got power and explosive options up top, when you’ve got solid options through the middle, you’ve got some youth, you’ve got some experience, all of a sudden you start looking at it, and it’s like dare to dream,” she says. “Are we going to be sitting here in a month’s time and actually we’ll be picking up a World Cup?
“I think it’s a team who could go close, there’s lots to like in there and I’m hopeful the New Zealand public gets behind them and shows a bit of support, because they could go all the way.
“Time zones aren’t the most helpful for watching the cricket, that’s to be fair but there will definitely be lots of us who will be experiencing late nights and early mornings cheering them on. And you only do that for teams you think have got the goods. I really am truly excited and I hope that’s the feeling in the team as well.”
An ankle injury in the first cricket game of the summer denied Mackay a season with the Canterbury Magicians - who won the Super Smash title on Saturday - and the opportunity to fight for a World Cup spot. One of the stars of last year’s ODI World Cup in New Zealand, Mackay underwent surgery 10 weeks ago, but that hasn’t kept her far from the game.
A self-described cricket nut, Mackay has been part of the Spark Sport team covering the Super Smash league, providing commentary, insight and interviews - something she says is an absolute dream job.
She’s always had an interest in commentating and analysis of cricket, even as a young kid, making sure she tuned in early to any game to catch the pitch report and pre-match chats.
“Most kids, they’re not too interested in it, they just want to watch fours and sixes,” she laughs.
But the 32-year-old, who’s had a stop-start international career, never saw people like her on TV.
“All the people I saw commentating and presenting were generally male, former players who had these amazing careers and were hall of famers and so well respected,” Mackay says.
The few women who she saw doing commentary were cricketing legends like Debbie Hockley and Lesley Murdoch (incidentally the past and present presidents of NZ Cricket).
It was Murdoch who gave Mackay her first taste of commentary, inviting her to a White Ferns game for radio commentary after someone pulled out last minute.
After figuring out the technical side of the gig, Mackay was hooked, priding herself on having good tactical knowledge of the game, which helps both on and off the pitch.
Mackay made history with former White Ferns Katey Martin and Rebecca Rolls this summer, as the three women commentated a Super Smash double-header for Spark Sport.
It wasn’t an intentional plan to have an all-female team, Mackay says. But Alex Lewis, executive producer of cricket at Spark Sport told her the line-up had nothing to do with gender, but the three best people to call the game.
“He was like well that’s the most powerful thing,” Mackay remembers. “Having three people who are good enough to do the job, who are experienced enough to do the job. We can have them in the caller role or the expert role, we can have them presenting for the day, doing the interviews and the post-match presentations and it actually doesn’t matter at all.
“But we’ve got to the point where within our group, we’ve got enough experience and skill that everyone across the board can do it.”
While more women have been seen on cricket commentary recently, it’s still rare to have an all-female team, especially commentating on the men’s game.
“When I was 10 years old, if cricket was on TV, it was men presenting it,” Mackay says. “So to know how far the game’s come and to have been pretty heavily involved in it along the way, was definitely a pretty special moment.”
Mackay has also had feedback from women to share how much they loved to see women on the commentary team too.
“Having more women involved and having more women in prominent positions, I think only makes it easier to say yeah this is actually a space where everyone can co-exist and actually it’s going to be a safe, encouraging space for all,” she says.
“I think that’s been really powerful and hopefully we’re only going to see good results for the sport out of that as well.”
As for any current players who might be the next commentary stars? Mackay tips Amy Satterthwaite’s tactical knowledge of the game and Kerr - although not for a while, as Mackay reckons she has “another 15 years of dominating world cricket to go. ”
Satterthwaite led the Canterbury Magicians to Super Smash victory on Saturday, thanks to an incredible batting performance of 95 (off 62 balls) from former Northern Brave player Kate Anderson and an all-round effort in the field.
It was a fitting finish for Satterthwaite, who’d announced it was to be her last T20 game in the red and black. After departing for a duck, she made up for it in the field, taking two wickets and whipping the bails off in the final ball of the game to seal the deal as the Magicians beat the Wellington Blaze by 12 runs.
“The way that Amy Satterthwaite has led the team, bat, ball, in the field, as captain, I think that can not be overstated, she is the best player in the competition,” Mackay says.
Satterthwaite finished the season with the second most runs (376) after Anderson, most catches (nine) and was the fifth highest wicket taker (with three Magicians players ahead of her).
“She has been such a servant of Canterbury Cricket, she’s played the best part of 20 years, and she is the best cricketer I think I’ve ever seen play. She’s my favourite cricketer to play with as well,” says Mackay, who had her record of the most T20 appearances for the Magicians broken by Satterthwaite on Saturday.
“It’s a fitting end to a wonderful career. She wasn’t offered that by New Zealand so to be able to go out on a high, at an absolute peak of her powers, when she’s on top…she’s been an absolute legend of the game so doesn’t deserve any less than that,” Mackay says.
Loyal to Canterbury since the 2007/08 season, Mackay isn’t sure how many more playing years she has.
She jokes there’s a few domestic records she might want to break before she calls time, but she’s truthful about the fact that when she does retire, the time away from the game she dearly loves will be tough.
“I’ve been involved playing with the Magicians for 16 years, which is half my life,” Mackay says.
“Especially when I was younger, a lot of my identity and how I viewed myself was around cricket and cricket performance and that being such a big part of your life for such a long time. You almost feel a bit exposed and a bit naked without it.
“I’d be really sad if I didn’t play again, it’s something I love doing and am still so passionate about. I do sit on the fence, I’m definitely not getting any younger. Now I’ve got the matching scar set, one on each ankle so I’m definitely not going to be moving any easier or any quicker in the near future but it’s been a huge part of my life.”
A future in cricket is inevitable for Mackay, whether it’s in coaching, commentating or elsewhere.
When she received a text asking her to be a mentor for the inaugural U19 Women’s T20 World Cup in South Africa in January, she initially thought it might be a scam.
“When I first heard of it and some of the names of the other mentors involved, there were definitely some doubts that crept in pretty quickly if I was going to be a good match, compared to them,” Mackay says, chosen as a mentor alongside names like Mignon du Preez, Mithali Raj, Anisa Mohammed and Sana Mir.
“It almost felt like I could probably tell these kids what not to do, the mistakes I’ve made along the way and the things that haven’t quite gone right.”
She was paired up with the New Zealand team and also Indonesia, who had a total passion for cricket and love for their team.
“That was just really reinvigorating, I probably had a little catch of sulking about being injured and a little bit woe is me and trying to figure some things out,” Mackay says.
“And to just go over and be in a World Cup environment with these youngsters who were just having the time of their lives, beautiful weather, great cricket getting played, it was seriously cool.
“They want any help they can get and that’s something I’ve been really passionate about throughout my career. Offering that assistance, that statistical piece but also the coaching side of things - the throwdowns, the work with the players. So to be able to spend some time with a new group who were desperate to get better.
“I hope they got as much out of the mentor programme as I did.”
*The White Ferns' next game is against hosts South Africa on Tuesday at 6am (NZT), live on Sky Sport 1.
