One of the White Ferns greats, Katey Martin, isn't quite ready to hang up her keepers' gloves yet, playing in a first-of-its-kind T20 tournament in Dubai this week. But she already has plans for a future away from the crease.
Katey Martin isn’t finished yet.
The veteran White Ferns wicketkeeper was visibly emotional during the national anthem played at Hagley Park, before New Zealand’s final game against Pakistan at the Cricket World Cup. And a tweet the day before the game, thanking the fans for their “overwhelming” support, led many to believe her 103rd ODI game for her country would be her last.
But after 18 years in the international arena, Martin is quick to point out she hasn’t made a decision on her cricketing future yet.
She’s headed to Dubai this week to play in the FairBreak women’s T20 tournament, held over a fortnight.
“I just want to get to that and reassess from there,” she says.
“We’ve been going since the start of August, and I’ve only had three or four days off. It’s been pretty full-on, so it’s a matter of having a little bit of a break now and refresh. After playing in Dubai in 50 degrees heat, I think I’ll know one way or another.”
Martin has had an outstanding career with the White Ferns, since making her debut in her solitary test match, against India, in 2003. With 95 T20 internationals and 103 ODIs, she’s just one appearance short of a double century – which she probably could never have dreamed of when she moved from her home city of Dunedin to be part of the New Zealand Cricket Academy in Lincoln back in 2003.
"I think that’s the main thing about my commentary, I’m a fan of cricket."
The FairBreak invitational tournament is organised by FairBreak Global, a worldwide gender equality initiative.
Originally scheduled to take place in Hong Kong, it was moved to Dubai due to Covid-19 and will see six teams compete in 19 matches starting this weekend (and will be screened on Sky Sport).
It’s an ICC-sanctioned competition that will see players from 35 cricketing countries take part. New Zealand is represented by Martin, Sophie Devine and Suzie Bates.
“The big thing around FairBreak is giving more exposure to those players from associate nations, the likes of Papua New Guinea, Thailand and Germany. That was a big thing for me, playing with those associate players and being able to promote the game,” Martin says.
“It’s going to be an awesome experience for all of us to play with people from different nations. I’m also fortunate that Sophie is in my team, so I don’t have to see her whacking my teammates around the park.”
Whether or not Martin decides to call it a day after FairBreak, her mind is inevitably turning to what her involvement in cricket will be like when she finishes up.
“I’d definitely go into coaching, in terms of one-on-one coaching,” she says. “Whether it’s within a team environment is a different story.
“I’d be more of an assistant; I’d never be a head coach. When I was younger, Rowan Milburn took me under her wing in Dunedin."
Milburn was a wicketkeeper for both the White Ferns and the Netherlands (she’s now the principal of Hagley College in Christchurch). She was still playing for Otago when she began helping Martin with her game; when Milburn switched to Canterbury in the 2002/03 season, Martin took on the keeping gloves for Otago.
“It’s something I want to do now with some of the younger kids and I think that’s how we want to evolve the game,” says Martin. “If I can help out some of the younger keepers and give back like Rowan did for me when I was younger, then that would be pretty cool to see people develop and have the opportunity that I did.”
Outside of her appearances for the White Ferns and Otago, Martin has always kept herself busy, forging a successful IT consultancy career, and more recently, adding television work to her CV.
When she started at the New Zealand Cricket Academy, she did a degree in commerce at Lincoln University and continued on in the IT space.
Today Martin works for Computer Concepts (CCL) in Christchurch, managing business transformation. After signing up for a New Zealand Cricket contract in 2018, she’s been working part-time.
“It’s about having that balance and keeping my brain refreshed,” she says. “Cricket is 30 to 40 hours a week and I’ve topped it up with some work as well.
“New Zealand Cricket were really supportive of that and at my age, it’s important for that transition out of cricket, whenever that’s going to happen.”
Martin’s television work started on the back of the White Ferns tour of Australia in late 2020.
“I used to get mic’d up because I was a wicketkeeper, and the guys from Channel Seven asked if I’d like to stay on for the upcoming WBBL,” she says. “I got offered some playing opportunities in that competition as a fill-in, and after being in a bubble, I didn’t really want to do that if I wasn’t going to play.
“I got to commentate on games with the likes of Mel Jones and Lisa Sthalekar. From there, the opportunity came up with Spark Sport. New Zealand Cricket want to help us to develop outside of cricket – I’m fortunate they’ve allowed me to do it as I’m a player, but they thought it was a good opportunity.”
After the White Ferns were eliminated from the World Cup, another opportunity presented itself. The ICC production team reached out to her.
“It was a nice polite message actually, like, ‘Sorry about you being eliminated, I hope this isn’t too rude, but would you like to commentate on the World Cup?’” Martin recalls.
“For some, it’s the pinnacle of commentating - whereas I just see it as an opportunity to talk about cricket and promote the game. I think that’s the main thing about my commentary, I’m a fan of cricket. It was pretty cool to be asked.”
The Otago Sparks celebrate victory in the 2021-22 Hallyburton Johnstone Shield.
Despite living in Christchurch for many years, Martin has never considered playing for anyone other than her home association. She helped set up the Otago Sparks' victory in this year's Hallyburton Johnstone Shield.
“A big value of mine is loyalty and it was always about continuing to play for Otago,” she says. “I love their culture so much. Being able to see the youngsters like Polly Inglis, Bella James and Caitlin Blakely doing so well and be alongside them during that period is just so cool.
“There’s just something about playing for Otago that feels like home. It’s a pretty special place for me and I’ll always cherish that I’ve played for Otago for my whole cricket career.”
A month after she took off her gloves at the end of the World Cup, Martin can reflect on the White Ferns’ performance.
“I feel like we put ourselves in really good positions in so many of those games. There were just little moments that we couldn’t get quite right; the South African game with our batting and finishing that game against the West Indies,” she says. “If one of those had gone our way, it would have been a different World Cup.
“What can we learn from what happened after the World Cup win in 2000? Are there more things we can do now than what they did then? We haven’t had the success that they had, but with the exposure that the World Cup has had, what can we do around evolving the game?
“It’d be so amazing to hear in a kid in 20 years’ time say ‘I was at the White Ferns game when they played West Indies in the World Cup. What a great game it was and that inspired me to play for them’.”
