White Ferns captain Sophie Devine is pleading for a comprehensive build-up to next year's one-day World Cup on home soil, after the team was underdone for the recent Twenty20 tournament in Australia.
Devine was on hand to launch the 2021 Cricket World Cup, as the women's game rides an unprecedented wave of support.
The White Ferns played just four T20 internationals in 12 months before the tournament, something Devine knows must not be repeated for the one-day World Cup in New Zealand next February.
"We know the best way to prepare for a world event is to be playing really hard games against top opposition," Devine told Newshub. "Which we're hopefully going to have."
The government has committed to assisting the White Ferns' preparations, with a $500,000 of annual high-performance funding.
"We certainly want to give the White Ferns every single bit of support we can to have them be competitive in this tournament," said sports minister Grant Robertson.
The International Cricket Council's also investing heavily in the women's game, with tournament prize money almost doubling from 2017.
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