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The former all-rounder from next Zealand, Sarah Tsukigawa, has been named their next national selector for women’s cricket. She participated in five international years, from 2006 to 2011, playing 42 One-Day Internationals and 19 Twenty20 Internationals.
Ben Sawyer, the head coach of New Zealand, will collaborate with Tsukigawa. She will be responsible for choosing players for the women’s cricket route, both for the national team and for teams slightly below it. In two weeks, New Zealand will host Australia before travelling to the United Arab Emirates for the Women’s T20 World Cup. The teams for the two assignments will be revealed on September 10 at Christchurch’s Hagley Oval.
“I’ve always wanted to get back involved in women’s cricket and give back to the game that has given me so much,” Tsukigawa, an Otago captain who later served as assistant coach and selector, stated. She continued to work as a teacher in Dunedin while holding the last two posts.
Tsukigawa participated in the 2009 T20 World Cup as a member of the New Zealand squad. In the same year, she competed for them in the ODI World Cup.
“Clear communication is an important part of selection and I feel I can bring that, along with my experience as a player,” she said in an NZC release. “I’ve got a lot of belief in this current group of White Ferns and the pathway that is being developed to produce future White Ferns.”
Liz Green, the Head of Women’s High Performance at NZC, clarified that the women’s national selector would be in charge of succession planning and talent identification throughout the women’s pathway. The latter may become urgently relevant given Sophie Devine’s decision to resign as T20I captain after the World Cup. Devine, nevertheless, wants to continue serving as the ODI’s head.
“Sarah has a clear passion for talent identification and development,” Green said. “She has a unique skillset with her experience both as a player and a selector, so she brings an understanding of the selection process from both points of view.