Contracts cull blindsides Tahuhu

White Ferns seamer Lea Tahuhu only learned New Zealand Cricket wanted to meet with her in person through wife and team-mate Amy Satterthwaite.

Tahuhu was one of five players not to have her White Ferns contract renewed for the coming year yesterday. She was informed 10 days ago she was not in New Zealand’s immediate plans and they would be looking to the future and the next generation of White Ferns.

She described the past week for her and Satterthwaite as the roughest of their lives and said they were both ‘blind-sided’ by the news.

Her axing from the national contract list comes a day after Satterthwaite retired from international cricket after not receiving a contract herself.

Despite missing the 17-player contract list, the 31-year-old Tahuhu has vowed to fight her way back into the White Ferns with strong performances for the Canterbury Magicians.

Tahuhu and Satterthwaite had separate individual meetings last Wednesday in Christchurch with NZC’s high performance boss Bryan Stronach and chief executive David White.

Finding out NZC wanted to meet with her through Satterthwaite, rather than receiving her own personal message, had disappointed Tahuhu.

‘‘It’s an interesting one, isn’t it? There’s not many other players this would happen to. I’m not sure if [White Ferns sisters] Amelia or Jess Kerr, if they were in a similar situation, just one of them would get a message.

‘‘I understand we’re married, but at the same time we are two separate people with two different careers and we’ve both given long service.

‘‘It was a strange one to be told by Amy that I’d be having that meeting.’’

Tahuhu went into the meeting with a positive frame of mind and thought it may have been to discuss her cricket plans for the next year.

She has been the White Ferns’ firstchoice pace bowler in recent summers and was the leading wicket-taker through the first half of the 2022 Women’s Cricket World Cup on home soil. She finished with 10 wickets at an average of 20.08 (economy rate 4.76), injuring her hamstring late in the tournament against England.

Since debuting for the White Ferns in 2011, Tahuhu has been a regular in the side, playing 83 ODIs and 61 T20Is.

Leigh Kasperek, Frankie Mackay and Thamsyn Newton were the other three players not to be retained, with Katey Martin having announced her retirement earlier this month.

Six players have been offered contracts for the first time: Auckland Hearts trio

Fran Jonas, Molly Penfold and Izzy Gaze, Northern Brave spinner Nensi Patel, Otago Sparks spinner Eden Carson and Wellington Blaze batter Georgia Plimmer.

The past week had been incredibly challenging for both Tahuhu and Satterthwaite.

‘‘I’d say it’s certainly been the roughest week of our lives. You never go into a meeting like that knowing what to expect. I guess we didn’t have a heap of information leading into it apart from being asked to attend it. It’s been really emotional. It’s been hard on us,’’ Tahuhu said.

Discovering she wasn’t receiving a national contract and wasn’t seen as a ‘‘key T20 player’’ for the White Ferns had