Life keeps getting better for Maniototo farmgirl Eden Carson, whose taste of international cricket at the Commonwealth Games has left the young White Ferns spinner wanting more - once her veterinary studies are done, she tells Merryn Anderson.
Won bronze on Sunday, turned 21 on Monday - not a bad 24 hours for Eden Carson.
The Otago student vet nurse was part of the White Ferns side who beat England in the bronze medal match at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games earlier this month, and the next day, she celebrated her milestone 21st birthday surrounded by her teammates and friends.
“The girls celebrated not just the medal but also my birthday," Carson says. "And I really appreciated them actually staying up till my birthday."
It's been a whirlwind few months for Carson - from receiving her first White Ferns contract in May, being named in the Commonwealth Games squad in June and then making her debut in July, as White Fern #199.
“I didn’t think I’d get into the White Ferns this year, or the next couple of years. I was just taking it day by day,” Carson says, even after an impressive domestic season with the Otago Sparks.
Eden Carson and Sparks teammate Hayley Jensen with their bronze medals.
Carson took 17 wickets in the T20 Super Smash, the third highest haul in the competition, and her figures of 4/12 were the second best of the season.
She was also impressive in the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield, taking five wickets for 17 runs in the final to see the Sparks home, and lift the shield for only the third time in the 50-over competition’s 84-year history. At the New Zealand Cricket awards, she won the Phyl Blackler Cup for women's domestic bowling.
“Comparing it to other seasons, we felt a bit better with getting some more wins under our belts,” Carson explained. The Sparks also finished second in the Super Smash.
“All in all it was a great season for the team. And it was definitely one of my better seasons with the Sparks.”
Raised on a Maniototo sheep and beef farm, Carson’s cricket journey started in primary school, playing alongside her brother in a team of boys. She bounced between sports during school, “but every time I’d stop playing, I’d miss it,” Carson says. She still plays hockey and rugby too, having to pull out of the hockey season this year when she made the White Ferns.
It wasn’t until high school that she played in an all-girls cricket team at Saint Hilda's Collegiate School in Dunedin. She made her Sparks debut when she was in Year 12, winning the Gillette Venus Cup with St Hilda’s that same year.
Current Sparks teammates Molly Loe and Emma Black played alongside Carson at school, and make up part of the close-knit Otago side.
“Definitely the team culture has got a lot better over the past couple of years as well, everyone’s really close,” Carson explains, joking that they’re “quite a weird bunch of girls to be honest.”
“A lot of us are friends outside of the team as well which helps a lot.”
The 2021/2022 Otago Sparks celebrate winning the Hallyburton Johnstone Shield.
One of those friends and a role model over the years has been Suzie Bates, a stalwart of the Otago side since 2002 (the year after Carson was born). Bates even coached Carson when she was a teenager playing Otago representative cricket.
And it was Bates who broke the news to Carson she'd be making her White Ferns debut against South Africa, at their first Commonwealth Games match.
Carson was nervous when told she had to go to Bates’ room, but the emotion turned to joy when her long-time friend and mentor gave her the good news.
“It really sunk in then when I got told I was actually playing. I was like ‘Woah this is happening, I’m going to be playing in a Commonwealth Games, representing my country’,” Carson says. She made her debut alongside 18-year-old wicket-keeper Izzy Gaze - her roommate in Birmingham.
Thirteen years her senior, Bates has been a role model for Carson for many years.
“I always thought about playing with her one day, then I got to play with her at the Sparks and now I get to play alongside her in the White Ferns,” says Carson.
“The way she carries herself, not just on-field but off-field, I really admire about her as well. She’s so dedicated and caring as a person. She always just takes that on the cricket field and leaves it all out there.
“I look up to her and I think a lot of younger players, male and female, definitely look up to her as well.”
White Ferns #199 and #200 - Eden Carson and Izzy Gaze.
Carson bowled one over in the first game against South Africa, with their captain Sune Luus and power hitter Chloe Tryon scoring 10 from the over.
“I was so nervous, my heart was pumping the whole game, and man did they hit the ball a whole lot harder which makes it more nervous,” remembers Carson.
“When Sophie [Devine] told me I was about to bowl, I think my heart stopped for a little bit to be honest. It was a good experience, though.”
Her first wicket came in the second game of the tournament, against Sri Lanka. After a strong appeal for LBW from Carson and wicketkeeper Gaze got no interest from the umpire, captain Devine decided to go upstairs and the decision was given out.
The White Ferns swamped Carson, cheering, hugging and ruffling her hair. “That was a bit uncalled for,” Carson jokes. “But to have the team around me made it even more special.”
The White Ferns return to camp soon, in preparation for a West Indies tour starting in September. The tour consists of three ODIs and five T20s over a three-week period.
While the team haven’t been named for that tour yet, Carson would love to be on the plane to Antigua, especially as a spin bowler in Caribbean conditions.
“I’d love to be able to go on a tour to the West Indies and bowl on their pitches cause they’re a bit more favourable to the spinners I feel. It would be another great experience,” she says.
Their only home series this summer is against Bangladesh in December - three T20s and three ODIs - ahead of the next pinnacle event, the T20 World Cup in South Africa in February.
Carson might not have the chance to defend an HBJ title if she retains her spot in the White Ferns, with the competition running from November to March, alongside the Super Smash starting in late December.
She finishes her final year of study for her vet nursing degree this year - now busy catching up on the lectures she missed at Otago Polytechnic while in Birmingham. And while she has to plan out her life pretty thoroughly to balance cricket, study and work (she's been helping out on a 900-cow dairy farm in Maniototo when she can), she just takes her cricket career as it comes.
She travelled to Houston, Texas, in April this year to play in the Houston Open T20 tournament - helping to grow the game internationally. She and Sparks team-mate Kate Ebrahim were the first Kiwi women to play in the tournament, joining the Samps Army side, which won the final. She hopes to continue taking her cricket career further offshore.
“I’d love to achieve a big league like The Hundred or something like that," she says. "But I'm taking it one step at a time, and hopefully that time comes, because that’s definitely something I’d want to do.”
