In the lead-up to next month's Cricket World Cup in NZ, the White Ferns remember a 'first game' in their careers. Starting the series, quick bowler Lea Tahuhu on playing her ODI debut in front of her dad, before he tragically passed away.
Lea Tahuhu remembers taking her first wicket in international cricket, then turning to look up into the stands to find her dad - on his feet, clapping and cheering wildly.
Initially, Tahuhu didn’t know she’d captured the prized scalp of young opener Meg Lanning, now Australia’s captain (it would set up a decade-long duel between the pair). But her dad had no doubt the maiden wicket was hers.
Now, whenever she returns to the Allan Border Field in Brisbane, Tahuhu takes the time before a game to walk up into the empty stand, to the spot where her dad, Andrew, was sitting that day, June 14, 2011.
Now one of the world’s fastest bowlers, Tahuhu sits there and has “a moment of reflection” - remembering her first game for the White Ferns, and remembering her dad, too.
Of course, she had no idea at the time it would be the only opportunity her proud father – and her very first coach - would have to see her play in the black strip.
Straight after that tour of Australia, Tahuhu went on with the White Ferns to England to play in a quad series. But midway through, she got a devastating call from home – her dad had died after a heart attack.
She and her partner, Amy Satterthwaite – who was also playing for the White Ferns – left the tour immediately and flew home for Andrew’s funeral.
“Dad’s death was so unexpected. I’ve had 10 years to deal with it, but it was so tough at the time – especially as a 20-year-old,” Tahuhu says, her voice quavering.
“So it’s something I treasure a lot – that my dad got to see my first game for New Zealand.”
Like most Kiwi kids, Lea-Marie Tahuhu began her cricketing career in her backyard in Christchurch.
It was the school groundsman at Linwood North Primary who noticed the eight-year-old Tahuhu mucking about with a cricket bat at lunchtime, and suggested to her parents they should sign up for the St Albans club. (She’s still with the Saints today).
“My oldest sister signed up as well, and Dad became our coach,” says Tahuhu, who's of Ngāi Tahu descent. “He’d never played outdoor cricket, but he played indoor and so he volunteered to coach us. He ended up being my coach for the first six or seven years.
“It’s an interesting situation when your dad’s the coach, if things didn’t go well on the Saturday, you'd sit in silence with the disappointment on the car ride home.
“Then we started going up the grades and on to representative honours. When I made the Canterbury U15s, he stood back and thought ‘I’ve done my bit and I can sit back and enjoy watching’. Really, it was a pretty cool start to my career.”
Tahuhu is sure volunteering is in her DNA, and she’ll be “roped in” one day if her daughter, Grace, decides to play sport.
She has some time yet, though – Grace has just turned two. She's on tour in Queenstown with Tahuhu and Satterthwaite as they prepare for next month’s ICC Women's Cricket World Cup with a five-game series against India, starting today.
Tahuhu’s first selection for the White Ferns in 2011 came after a North v South game at Lincoln.
“Luckily enough I picked up six wickets, and I thought I might be in with a bit of a chance here,” she says.
“Then I got a call from Steady – Gary Stead was the coach at the time – to say I’d be heading over on my first tour to Australia and then on to England. So it was a long time away for my first tour; at 20, it was a big deal.”
She’d just started working as an admin assistant for a company in Christchurch: “And I had to go ask the boss, ‘Hey, is it okay if I take six weeks off?’
“But they were great. I worked there for about six years, and I was playing indoor cricket for New Zealand at the same time, so I was taking a lot of time off. But they were extremely supportive of me the entire time.”
Tahuhu couldn’t believe she’d be making her debut against Australia – the team she’d dreamed of meeting during her backyard games.
“Our closest rivals, our neighbours across the ditch, and the powerhouse of women’s cricket. To debut against the best was cool – and a little bit nerve-wracking too,” she admits.
“As soon as I found out I was in the White Ferns, I called my family. Dad was pretty keen to come and watch, so he made the trip over on his own.”
The game where she should have made her ODI debut was rained out, which only heightened her nerves. Two days later, she took the field for New Zealand – with her dad in the stands, and the woman who’d later become her wife alongside her.
“Amy and I had been together for a couple of years then. It was really special to be able to look over to her in the changing room and know deep down that the person you’re sharing a life with has fully got your back. To have her helping me so much, in the lead-up to that first game and then right through the game, made it extremely special,” Tahuhu says.
"You want to work your arse off so you can repay that faith."
As far as the encounter went, it’s not a scoreboard Tahuhu would have framed on her wall. “We got thrashed to be fair,” she says.
The White Ferns lost by six wickets that day, and Australia would go on to retain the Rose Bowl for yet another year.
But no one can take away Tahuhu’s maiden wicket, bowling the teenage opener Lanning (now known as 'The Megastar') for 11 in the third over.
“Funnily enough, I didn’t even know I’d got her out. I couldn’t see that the bails had come off; I heard a noise and thought she’d nicked it,” says Tahuhu, whose bowling figures were 1-38 that day.
“So I've turned around and appealed to the umpire, and he’s looking at me like ‘What are you appealing for? You’ve bowled her!’ And he hasn’t put his finger up. Then I’ve turned back and seen the bails on the ground, and everyone’s laughing at me.
“It's a wicket I’ll never forget. Not only for the person I bowled - the career she’s gone on to have, and the battles we’ve had since - but the way it happened.”
Tahuhu also got to bat, coming in at the very bottom of the order and scoring 11 off 12 balls, including two fours. “I got to show I could swing the willow,” she says.
But her first White Ferns appearance made Tahuhu realise she needed to work on her bowling. “I was a tearaway quick, and I didn’t have the consistency I’ve had through the end-part of my career,” she says.
“Once you step up to international level, you can’t get away with as much. They punish balls you’d get away with in domestic cricket.
“There’s a sizeable gap between domestic and international games, but we’re getting much better at finding ways to bridge that gap now – with development contracts and winter training squads.”
On reflection, Tahuhu doesn’t think she was quite ready for international cricket, but she’s grateful the selectors saw something in her, not only the speed she could bowl at (later recorded at 126kph).
“Then you feel you want to work your arse off so you can repay that faith,” she says.
Tahuhu was one of four White Ferns to play their first ODI that day. Among them was her Canterbury team-mate, Frankie Mackay, who top-scored for New Zealand with 36.
Five players from that game 10 years ago are in the White Ferns squad for next month’s World Cup: Tahuhu, Satterthwaite, Mackay, Katey Martin and Suzie Bates.
“We have amazing friends from that tour - the likes of Suzie Bates, who calls herself Aunty Suzie to Grace now,” Tahuhu laughs.
The memories from that game – and of her dad – came flooding back to Tahuhu last week, at the naming of the White Ferns squad at Hagley Oval. “I’m sitting at my home ground being named for a World Cup, to be played at home as well, and it makes you reflect on where it all started, and how far you’ve come.”
There’s no doubt Andrew Tahuhu would be proud of just how far.
- For the record, Lea Tahuhu has played 75 ODIs for New Zealand; taken 82 wickets (her best figures 5-37 against England last year); and scored 300 runs (including four sixes).
