CHENNAI: On the first morning of her first overseas tour with the White Ferns, Amelia Kerr made a beeline for the chocolate fountain at The Langham Hotel in Melbourne. Amelia, all of 16 at the time and still in school, had been called up as a late replacement for the injured Leigh Kasperek during New Zealand’s 2017 white-ball series in Australia.
Katey Martin, the wicketkeeper then, remembers sitting with Suzie Bates, her captain and close friend, when Amelia came down for breakfast. “She had ice cream and some pancakes and this chocolate fondant,” Martin, who was also Amelia’s roommate on that tour, looks back. “I remember Suzie looking over and going, ‘Oh, Melie, we're international cricket now, we’ve got a game today and you're eating ice cream and chocolate for breakfast.’”
That interaction, far from signalling the disapproval of a senior with a newbie, marked the start of a special relationship between Bates and Amelia. Over the years, they have become an integral pair that holds New Zealand batting together on the field. Already a bonafide legend of the sport, Bates holds a slew of records which includes being the all-time leading run-scorer in T20Is. Amelia, a once in a generational talent and a New Zealand great in the making, has the highest individual score in one-day internationals.
Together, they have won innumerable number of matches for White Ferns and in the process, developed a friendship where they are inseparable as a duo both on and off the field. So much so that they have been nicknamed ‘Yogi and Boo-Boo’ after the fictional cartoon characters from The Yogi Bear show/movie by their teammate Lea Tahuhu.
*** *** ***
Amelia was nine when she watched the White Ferns play the ODI and T20I World Cup finals in 2009. Going to the nets with her dad before school at Linden, she would pretend to bat with the likes of Bates, Sophie Devine, and Amy Satterthwaite in a World Cup final and make her father commentate. Bates was her idol.
Amelia vividly remembers meeting Bates for the first time during an U15 tournament. “I didn’t really talk to her. She was coaching Otago and I was playing for Wellington. I was probably thinking ‘IT’S SUZIE BATES, I better score runs today and impress her,” recalls Amelia, sitting next to Bates during a conversation with The New Indian Express last year.
Bates, too, reminisces about the tournament, noticing how talented the youngster was. They went up against each other in the domestic circuit in the years to come, but it was only when Amelia joined the national team that their friendship formed. For Amelia, it was about going up against Bates in the nets, watching her idol closely and learning from one of the best in the world. For Bates, that infectious energy drew her towards the youngster.
“I think just having someone around with that enthusiasm was really inspiring. You're drawn to that kind of energy when you train and just talk about your goals and where we want this team to go. I've always found that really good energy to be around and that's probably just where it's grown,” explains Bates.
When friendships are formed over a common interest between two individuals from different age-groups, there is a chance where it could become a mentor-mentee relationship with the older one leading the way and younger learning. And sometimes, it could potentially make the dynamic of the relationship tilted towards one side.
Whereas, here — Bates is 37 and Amelia is 24 — that is not the case. Much like the cartoon ‘The Yogi Bear show’, Yogi (Bates) is a mischievous elder figure loyal to Boo-Boo (Melie) who often acts as the former’s conscience and confidante. They accept each other unconditionally and stay together while having fun.
Oftentimes, especially on tour, the two of them would be seen walking around, talking about cricket and life 24/7. At the nets, they would ask the coaches to bat and bowl together, pushing each other’s limits. After games, they would do their debriefing together, reflect on what went wrong while being empathetic to each other and look ahead. Their competitive nature, where they flip a switch when it comes to training and cricket and turn it off once they are done, was crucial in them realising that the time and bond they shared helped them grow as cricketers as well as people.
“On the field, she can be quite serious,” says Amelia. “Off the field, she's often singing really well and in tune. She tries to play the guitar because I bring my guitar on tour and she's played all her life. So, yeah, she's Suzie Bates on the field and she's Batesy off the field.” They even go on a holiday along with Jess Kerr – Amelia’s sister. “A little Dolphins group, we call ourselves,” Martin paints a picture.
“That's really special. To be able to just hang out with people. I just think when you see them in a car together, you have the music blaring and it's usually possibly Luke Combs’ song or some other Disney music to sing to. Someone's got a phone like this (imitates a mic) singing away and another one's clapping in that. I think when I think about Melie and Suzie, I think about music, cricket, and just having a good time,” she adds.
As their friendship and Amelia’s stature grew within the White Ferns, what stood out for Bates is the youngster’s ability to hold her own at a very young age. “I found that so refreshing because a lot of the time you get young bowlers in and they're learning as they go. Whereas, Melie knew what she was about. I learned from her and felt confident giving her the ball, letting her set the field. It was never me telling her what to do. It was always both of us talking about the game, wanting to get better at whatever we're doing; just being a teammate off the field and how we can help others. I know I'm a lot older, but at times I forget that,” laughs Bates.
Martin, who has watched and grown with the 37-year-old from a very young age, feels that a part of Bates sees herself in Melie. “She gets the energy from the competitiveness that Melie has as well. As an athlete, for someone like her who's been around so long, being able to have that energy from someone else, being able to get someone to continually push you and drive you and literally just to sit and talk about the game they love, which sometimes doesn't happen, maybe as much as it used to back in the day. I think that's the bond they have. I know she idolises Suzie and made a beautiful speech for her 150th ODI. However, I think when Melie looks back on her career in years to come, she'll owe a lot of that to Suzie around how she's been able to help her get in the team. She's been able to support her and take her away from her own head sometimes, which happens not just in sport, but also the pressures off the field as well,” says Martin.
Amelia, having been through her share of mental health struggles in 2021, launched a documentary series called Treading Waters. In this, she shared her mental health journey, where she took a sabbatical from the sport, and also created a platform — Out of the rough — where other people could be vulnerable and talk about their struggles as well. Watching Amelia go through this journey from close quarters and being there by her side has had a positive impact on the senior as well.
“It's being able to connect with Melie around the mental health side of things and not just her personal journey about others' journey and her ability to be so vulnerable. That's taught me how you can speak about your feelings to other people, having those close connections that you can be really honest with, especially when you're playing cricket. You can be away for up to ten months a year and you've actually lost the connection with your families and friends at home. So to have those people on tour and be able to open up, I think those conversations that I have were the special ones. The career conversations are great fun. But those are more important and the way she's been able to do that at such a young age is very cool for you,” says Bates looking at Amelia with pride.
She wishes that when the junior takes charge as White Ferns captain, Amelia will have the support system to take the country forward. “When Melie does captain the White Ferns, I just want her to have a group of really motivated players alongside her and support staff that know how to get the best out of that group because I want to see Melie lead a White Ferns team that are just so exciting to watch. And I think there's real potential in our country to do that in the future.”
*** *** ***
The year is 2024. Bates is not the captain anymore, Devine is. And Amelia is not a prodigy who’s deemed as the future of New Zealand cricket. She is the present. In fact, she has already captained the country. At 24, with eight years of international experience behind her, Amelia wants to learn from the next generation while being there for them as much as possible.
Seven years have passed since that chocolate fondant morning at The Langham Hotel in Melbourne. New Zealand are in the United Arab Emirates, getting ready for their first World Cup semifinal appearance since 2016 as they take on West Indies in Sharjah on Friday. They are two steps away from fulfilling what was Amelia’s one wish for Bates.
“I’d love her to win a World Cup,” she had said, with Bates frivolously nodding by her side. “The World Cup would be pretty special. I mean, no one really deserves anything but you feel as though she deserves a World Cup.”
Fittingly, the moment that sealed the semifinal spot came with the Yogi and Boo-Boo of New Zealand cricket in the middle. Amelia bowling to Fatima Sana, the last hope for Pakistan in a chase of 111, and Bates taking the catch at covers. The roar the veteran let out after the ninth wicket of the innings before embracing Amelia for a big hug said it all. The final wicket, one of Sadia Iqbal, was almost a repeat of the same, with Bates taking another catch at mid-on.
New Zealand are a World Cup semifinalist, and so is Amelia Kerr for the first time in her career. It has been a campaign where the past, present and the future have come together. From Devine, on her final assignment as T20I captain, to Bates, in what could possibly be her last T20 World Cup, to Amelia to Tahuhu to the likes of Georgia Plimmer and Eden Carson setting the stage alive on their first rodeo — the White Ferns have done everything in their power to get here.
Now, it is all about two extremely good days on the field to fulfil the dream that Bates, Devine, Amelia and every New Zealand player, past and present, had longed for and worked hard for. That said, even if they don’t go all the way, even if they fall short, this tournament has shown that the future of White Ferns is in good hands. That they have someoene in Amelia Kerr to carry their legacy forward.
Martin sums it up succinctly: “I think as a New Zealand cricket fan, you look at those two together (Bates and Amelia) and you go, that's arguably New Zealand's greatest female cricketer and one of New Zealand's best and Melie will be an once in a generation player and likely to — no offence, Batesy (laughs) — but probably surpasses Suzie by how she's going. So, I think from a cricket perspective, if they keep performing and no one cares really if they hang out all day, every day, as long as they win a World Cup for New Zealand.