It started at Burnside Primary School with lunchtime, pick-up matches with the boys: cricket in the summer, rugby in the winter.

Cricket won the day and it was followed through to the Burnside West University Club and Kiwi cricket through to secondary school. In 2002 Frankie moved to the Lancaster Park Club where she first played for the Premier Women’s team under the tutelage of Selena Charteris at the age of 12! She has remained loyal to the club she loves for 16 seasons and over 130 matches.

Frankie first played for the Canterbury Magicians in 2007-08. Overall, she has played 120 matches and 105 in the Twenty20 format. In the One-day arena she has scored an impressive 4026 runs with 8 centuries and 18 half centuries. Her all-round value is reflected in her parsimonious off spin claiming 141 wickets. In Twenty20, she has scored 2172 runs and 94 wickets. Her Magicians’ playing record currently stands at 98 matches.

So what of her international career? It started with much promise in 2011 against Australia and saw her travel to the 2012 T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka and the 2013 One-day World Cup in India. A loss of form, perhaps from personal doubt, found Frankie out of favour with the selectors for five long years.

What of the personality? Frankie is a young woman who has immersed herself in the game of cricket. She has great knowledge of the game and has passionate views on tactics and how the game might be played. She has never been afraid to express her views.

Through recent years, Frankie has endured several injuries: a broken arm, broken thumb, back surgery that saw her side-lined for five months and, very recently, a severe ankle injury that had her in a “moon boot.

But such is the passion for the game and the courage and resilience of the person, Frankie has worked her way back into the New Zealand White Ferns. For, despite being in New Zealand’s top flite of female batsmen, season upon season, the selectors could not be convinced.

But 2018-19 was to be a stellar season for Frankie: three centuries in the first- class format and leading from the front in the Twenty20 game. She had gained the backing of several wise heads in the public who were questioning her omission. Her form was compelling and finally she was reselected after five years in the cricketing wilderness for the Twenty Series against India. Cruel luck would strike early in the match with her crippling ankle injury which curtailed her season.

There have been strong influences in Frankie’s career. Coaches Gary Stead and Selena Charteris in her early years and particularly Warren Lees and the late Mike Shrimpton during her time in the international cricketing wilderness.

Mike Shrimpton, as thoughtful and influential cricketer and coach that has graced the New Zealand game, encouraged Frankie to get her cricket in perspective and to create a life balance. Enjoy her game rather than worry and put resulting pressure on her need to perform. Trust her abilities and feel good in her achievements. Let instinct embellish the structures of her game.

Frankie’s emergence is a great story.

A natural sporting talent, initial success, some difficult road-blocks, perseverance, industry and a determined attitude to succeed. A belief in her values has been the underlying factor in this growth. Does anyone remember Frankie without her dread locks? Today’s Frankie has matured into an impressive young woman, a role model to all young women to pursue their dreams.

While she still retains the well-reasoned views, gone is the headstrong answer. We now see the articulate, the garrulous, the considered, the confident: lace these personality traits with a cricketing knowledge and you have the ingredients of a natural sports commentator. And so, it is into this arena that Frankie has ventured over the last two years.

Hosting weekend sports radio in “bite size chunks” and this season onto the television stage with commentary and panel discussion work. She sits very comfortably alongside such doyens of the sporting air waves industry as Ian Smith, Garth Galloway and Craig Cumming. She has been greatly encouraged by the vastly experienced Lesley Murdoch. The future in sports broadcasting appears limitless for Frankie.

Coaching at Youth level over several years has enhanced her cricketing perspective, and personal growth, as she deals with the personalities and skills of her young charges and the pressure of supporting parents of those players.

Further life balance has come in the form of employment as a librarian.

She is exceptionally proud of representing Canterbury, and of what she has achieved as a Magician and it is extremely satisfying that she has made it back to the top of the game in New Zealand. She has entered that cricketing realm of 28 to 35 years of age when cricketers fully realise their own game, and as such, feel comfortable in their ability to play at the very top level on an equal footing. She is values-driven, is well-accepted by her peers as she dominates the national cricketing scene.

These are exciting times for Frankie and she is well-up to those challenges.

Article added: Wednesday 05 June 2019