Craig McMillan was appointed as the new batting and fielding coach of the Women’s New Zealand team

The 48-year-old, who played 55 Tests and 197 ODIs primarily as a batter scoring more than 7,500 runs, joins head coach Ben Sawyer on a full-time basis. McMillan had earlier been part of the New Zealand women team during their T20 World Cup triumph in 2024.

“I’m over the moon to be in this role with the White Ferns. The women’s game is going from strength to strength, and I’m excited to continue to work with our talented players and help them reach their goals,” McMillan was quoted as saying by ICC. “The last year has gone so quickly and I’ve loved every minute of being part of a team that continues to improve, challenge one another, and does special things on the world stage.“

The White Ferns have won the Cricket World Cup once, in 2000, and finished runners-up three times. Several members of the squad travelled to Chennai last month for a training camp in a bid to adapt to spin-friendly conditions.

McMillan said the team’s build-up has been good and the White Ferns will go with the aim of adding to their trophy cabinet, having won the T20 World Cup last year. “It’s been a busy period leading into the 50-over World Cup. We’ve had a number of camps including one in Chennai which exposed the players to Indian conditions like what they’ll face in October-November. “The team is pumped to get back to India and take on another World Cup,” he said.

The overall prize money of the eight-team marquee tournament has been increased to USD 13.88 million (Rs 122.5 crore approx), a massive jump of 297 per cent from USD 3.5 million (Rs 31 crore approx) at the last edition held in New Zealand in 2022.