As teenage cricketer Aniela Apperley begins making her mark on the game, she could be in line for two World Cups in three months - starting with next month's indoor cricket worlds. Aiden McLaughlin reports.
In her final year at high school, talented Hawke’s Bay cricketer Aniela Apperley was denied the chance to debut for the Central Hinds women last summer, by persistent rain.
But now she gets to represent New Zealand where rain can’t affect play - at the Indoor Cricket World Cup in Melbourne next month.
And it may not be long until she’s representing her country at an outdoor world tournament – identified as one of New Zealand’s most promising young female cricketers ahead of next year’s inaugural U19 T20 World Cup.
Having just turned 18, the Napier Girls' High School student will be only the third woman from Hawke's Bay to represent New Zealand in indoor cricket since the early 1980s.
Apperley is the sole female among the six Hawke’s Bay cricketers selected for the World Cup, which starts on October 8.
Although she’s been in national age-group development teams in the outdoor version of the game, it’s only her second season playing indoor, after taking up cricket at primary school.
“I wanted to keep going [with cricket] in the winter, so when the opportunity came up, I thought I’d have a try,” Apperley says. “It went a lot better than I thought. It’s a lot quicker and more high intensity and I really enjoy it.”
There are four competitions at the World Cup: open women and men, and U22 women and men.
Apperley’s U22 team is captained by Wellington Blaze bowler Xara Jetly, while the open men’s line-up includes former Black Cap and Hawke’s Bay player Jesse Ryder, who’s playing in his second Indoor Cricket World Cup.
Competing teams have eight players each and the format is 16 overs a side, with each player bowling two overs. The games take around an hour and 10 minutes.
Unlike the outdoor game, indoor cricket is a fully self-funded sport, even at international level. The players have to pay for everything - including their team playing kit.
So the Hawke’s Bay indoor cricket club in Napier are trying to raise over $30,000 to enable Apperley and their five male players to travel to Australia. Fundraising events have included a quiz night and auction, which raised over $14,000, and regular Lotto Bonus Ball fundraisers. But with less than a month to go, they’re still short of their fundraising total.
A successful middle-distance and cross country runner growing up, Apperley is still involved in athletics, but now it’s mainly to help her keep a high level of fitness for her primary love, cricket.
She’s been supported throughout her cricket journey by her mother, Zosia, and father, Craig. The family live in Hastings, along with Apperley’s older brother, Matthew.
Zosia’s parents were born in Poland, which is where the name Aniela comes from.
Cricket has become a family affair, with her grandparents and friends taking her to games over the years to ensure she can play as often as possible. Apperley also singles out Craig Ross, the women’s coach for Hawke’s Bay cricket, as important to her development so far.
Apperley first picked up a bat in Year Four at Parkvale School in Hastings. She was the only girl in her team that year, playing games with a plastic ball. In Year Six, she played in her first team with a hard ball.
“It was quite scary. But the team were really inviting and all the boys were really nice to me so it kind of helped my love for the game,” she says.
Apperley continued her cricket through Havelock North Intermediate and Napier Girls’ High. She made her debut for Hawke’s Bay as a 14-year-old in the Shrimpton Trophy, the inter-provincial one-day women’s cricket competition in upper Central Districts.
She’s also been involved in the Central Districts U19 team over the last couple of years and was a key player in their victory at the NZ U19 championships this year.
Then she was called into the Central Hinds squad, and came incredibly close to making her debut.
“We had the White Ferns away during the Cricket World Cup and then a couple of injuries as well, so she would have got the opportunity to make her debut,” says Central Hinds coach Jamie Watkins.
“Unfortunately, the last four games [of the season] were totally rained out. It probably would have been a little bit earlier than expected for her and for us, but we were in a situation where we were confident that she would have been able to certainly hold her own there.”
A right-arm medium pace bowler, who’s also capable of scoring important runs, Apperley was identified by Central Districts through their age-group system. She’s made national development squads, too.
With White Ferns bowlers Hannah Rowe, Rosemary Mair and Claudia Green at the Hinds, Apperley is looking to learn from their experience.
As well as the prospect of playing for the Hinds, there are further opportunities for higher honours with the inaugural Women’s U19 T20 World Cup in South Africa early next year.
Originally scheduled to be held in 2021, before being delayed twice by Covid, it’s a 16-team tournament played immediately before the Women’s T20 World Cup in South Africa.
She impressed with the ball in the New Zealand U19 women’s development matches at Lincoln, in March, playing for the Devine XII. White Ferns wicketkeeper Izzy Gaze was on her team.
With school exams in the next few months, Apperley is not rushing into a decision about what she wants to do next season and beyond.
But with the latest agreement between New Zealand Cricket and the NZ Cricket Players Association making more money available to female players through match fees, it opens a new window of opportunity to young players like Apperley.
“It’s important that we understand when progressing players into the system, they’ve still got a lot going on with school and their own development as teenagers,” Watkins says. “So it’s pretty crucial we get that balance right.
“There are a lot of opportunities, there but we don’t want to rush that process either.”
When asked which players she looks up to, Apperley names two White Ferns - Mair, who’s also from Hawke’s Bay, and New Zealand captain Sophie Devine.
“I love how she’s such an attacking batter,” Apperley says of Devine. “We rely on her to come through with the bat and she usually does.”
With Devine still performing well, who knows - maybe Apperley will get the opportunity to pull on the White Ferns shirt and stand alongside her one day?
But in her immediate future, she’ll hopefully be wearing the silver fern across the Tasman to try to make her country - and everyone she knows - proud.
