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Sport Nation
How to tune into Sport Nation'You’ve got to be brave': Mackay on White Ferns hopes for World Cup opener
Jaxin Daniels • October 1st, 2025 4:03 pm
Frankie Mackay playing for the White Ferns | Photo: Chris Symes / Photosport
With New Zealand getting their Women's Cricket World Cup campaign underway tonight in India, former White Fern Frankie Mackay joined Sport Nation’s Scotty and Izzy to discuss their hopes for the tournament.
Some might think playing the defending champions first up can prove niggly, but Mackay thinks this is a great thing for the White Ferns.
“Every time you turn up for a World Cup, you’ve got to beat the best,” Mackay said.
“You’ve got to be able to turn up, to front up, to put your best foot forward.
“I like the fact that it starts with Australia. You just turn up and you have to say right, we’re here, we’re ready to go, we’re going to beat these guys.
“In a weird way, it takes a little bit of pressure off.
“You play them first up and it’s actually a chance to say we’re here, we’ve knocked off the defending champs first up, bring on the rest of the tournament.”
This raises the question, how do you beat the best in the world?
“You’ve got to be brave,” Mackay said.
“You’ve got to be clinical in the way you go about your gameplan, and you’ve got to realise that they’re going to challenge you on every part of that.
“You’ve got to have someone that goes out and doesn’t take a backwards step.”
The veteran of 60 white-ball internationals can also see where the Aussies might be vulnerable.
“I think a little bit of a chink that probably shows in Australia’s game plan is that they want to dominate the game at every stage,” Mackay said.
“I’m not saying they’re arrogant by any stretch of the imagination, because they’re good enough to play like that, but there is that little bit of an ego there.
“The little humble New Zealanders who just do the basics well over and over again, bring that consistency, bring a little bit of fight, that’s what you need to put them on the back foot.
“Then they turn around and say, no, I’m going to dominate this game, I’m going to show you that I’m so much better.
“That’s when things can get a little bit sticky.”
Listen to the full interview below:
