New Zealand Cricket set to introduce Debbie Hockley Medal to acknowledge top female players

In an attempt to honour the most outstanding female cricketer in the circuit and to acknowledge her efforts, New Zealand Cricket is set to introduce the Debbie Hockley Medal at this year's annual awards ceremony.

The honour, which will be presented annually at the NZC Awards, will be the female equivalent of the Sir Richard Hadlee Medal given annually to the top male cricketer. The 2022/23 awards ceremony will take place on March 23 in Auckland. The new award will be handed out that evening by Hockley herself.

Between 1979 and 2000, Hockley represented New Zealand in 118 ODIs and 19 Tests. She is regarded as a pioneer of the women's game and was one of the top players for two decades in the 1980s and 1990s. The Sir Richard Hadlee Medal wasn't established until 1998, 13 years before she became the only woman to get the New Zealand Cricketer of the Year accolade.

Speaking to the media after the historic announcement, the former New Zealand player said, “I feel honoured, personally, of course - but also thrilled that the country's outstanding women's cricketer of the year will be recognised on an annual and ongoing basis.”

She added, “It's been wonderful to watch the progress of the women's game in New Zealand over the past five or six years and this is another very positive development. Women's cricket is going from strength to strength; the growth at all levels has been amazing. I am looking forward to presenting this award to the inaugural recipient in March."

She successfully completed her Test career at an astonishing average of 52.04 and held the record of scoring the joint-second-most Test centuries (four), along with the most ODI hundreds scored in consecutive innings, among many other records. At the age of 21, she became the second-youngest captain in a women's Test.

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