White Ferns star Melie Kerr has posted a heartfelt protest at the abrupt retirement of teammate Amy Satterthwaite from international cricket.
Satterthwaite, 35, has not been offered an NZ Cricket contract for 2022/23 and has called an end to her 15-year career with the national women's team. The star batter is their most-capped player in one-day internationals, with 145 matches, and only Suzie Bates has scored more than her 4639 runs.
She has expressed her disappointment at not being allowed to continue through the upcoming Birmingham Commonwealth Games, as the NZC high performance programme begins to rebuild after this year's Twenty20 World Cup on home soil.
Kerr, 21, who looms as a key figure in that process, also laments the sudden departure of her role model and "mum on tour".
"I am lost for words," she posted on Instagram. "I am so sad.
"As your friend and teammate, this breaks my heart. One of the best players in the world still to this day.
"A world class cricketer and world class human. This is not the way your NZ career should have ended."
Kerr recalls being mentored by Satterthwaite during her first tour as a teenager, learning many of the onfield and off-field skills that have now made her one of the world's top players with bat and ball.
"You have taught me so much about the game," she said. "I'll miss our planning sessions the night before a game together and batting out in the middle with you, but I know you will always be there supporting.
"This is not how a legend of the game, our most-capped ODI player, the most down-to-earth person deserves to finish her career."
In 2017, Satterthwaite married teammate Lea Tahuhu and three years later, gave birth to daughter Grace.
NZ Cricket Players Association boss Heath Mills has sympathy for the veteran, but insists her situation is nothing new in sport.
"I've very seldom seen many athletes end their careers on their own terms - it's always a tough time," he said. "I'll always think a player has been hard done by, but I respect NZ Cricket.
"You never get to decide when you go out, someone else will decide for you. Very few get that luxury or opportunity, but most don't.
"I would have loved to have seen that for Amy and seen her go on her own terms, but at the end of the day, I represent all the players. For every disappointed Amy, there's an excited other player."
The decision not to contract Satterthwaite comes after a disappointing World Cup campaign, where the Ferns failed to progress to the knockout stages as hosts.
NZ Cricket high performance general manager Bryan Stronach believes it's the right time to promote younger players.
"We're not where we need to be going forward, I think the World Cup showed that," he said.
"We have an extremely talented bunch of talent coming through our system now, which is a massive change for us.
"The way forward is we have to look longer term and we have to invest in some of that great talent, and give them the opportunities to get to where they potentially could get to.
"We're not up to where we need to be or want to be, that's where we feel like we do have to take a slightly different direction around this and go to the future."
Stronach is candid on whether Satterthwaite's exclusion hurts the team's Commonwealth Games medal chances.
"Potentially," he admitted. "I think for us in the T20 game, we're looking for specialists with that skillset going forward.
"There's no doubt we need a sprinkling of experience and talent, but in our opinion, we'll get that balance right."
