Jason Pine: The White Ferns are in a risky position

Weekend Sport with Jason Pine

In trying to improve the consistency of the White Ferns, where should we be focusing our attention?

First and foremost, it seems to me that our domestic competition simply doesn't prepare our players for international cricket.

There are a couple of sides that dominate domestic women's cricket, but the overall standard of the domestic comp is simply too far below international cricket.

Scoring lots of runs and taking lots of wickets domestically isn't a good indicator as to whether a player is ready to contribute consistently at international level, because the gap is currently too big between the two.

The best elite sporting structures also create competition for places in the national side.

The realisation and crystal-clear knowledge that if you don't perform, there's someone waiting to take your place - and take their chance - simply doesn't exist right now.

And that in no way says that players don't care because they know they can't get dropped, but it's a simple fact that competition for places increases performance.

Bryan Stronach talked about addressing that - not only the Super Smash and Hallyburton-Johnstone Sheild - but the age-group comps and creating a bigger pool of talent.

But the word he used most was time, it takes time.

Unfortunately, in the instant gratification and results-driven business of elite sport, you're not always afforded that.

The worst thing that can happen here is for apathy to set in, in the White Ferns fan-base, especially its discretionary one.

Sports fans who will take interest and invest in a side they see is making progress, and is backed by an organisation with a constant search for improvement - my gut feel is that isn't how NZ sports fans feel about the White Ferns right now.

They are very much on the fence about watching them or not.

And there's only one thing worse than not performing and not progressing - and that is becoming irrelevant.

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