An openness to opportunities and a willingness to take bold decisions have made Leigh Kasperek an international cricketer
Shashank Kishore21-Mar-2016Born to Scottish parents of Polish origin, Leigh Kasperek stumbled upon cricket by chance, the game catching her fancy one rainy summer’s day in Edinburgh. At one point in her mid teens, she was keen on tennis and wanted to earn a sports scholarship and move to the United States of America. But, as fate would have it, she began to explore the possibility of taking up cricket seriously. Except, cricket in Scotland was far from being the No. 1 sport.A decade on, Kasperek, who is on her second tour of India with New Zealand Women, recounts with an air of confidence why the decision to move out of the comforts of home in Edinburgh, where she lived with her parents, was the best decision she has made in her life so far, bringing her much more than any scholarship or degree could have done.”I moved there just to taste a new culture, a new country. Maybe I just wanted to live outside of Scotland to get a perspective of life, I guess,” Kasperek tells ESPNcricinfo. “I wanted to adapt to a new place, new set of people and yet play cricket. It was extremely difficult to start with, living alone all of a sudden after having spent all my life with my parents back home in Scotland. But it’s a chance I took for my good. So far, things have worked out quite well.”Kasperek’s international career is still in its nascent stages – she made her debut against India in Bangalore last year. She picked up the wickets of Mithali Raj, Harmanpreet Kaur and Veda Krishnamurthy. Then she remained unbeaten on 21, nearly helping New Zealand Women – aka the White Ferns – pull off a tense chase before they fell 17 short. Over nine ODIs and as many T20Is, she has proved to be a useful offspinner, who can be effective with the bat.Kasperek’s talent was evident from a very young age. She was a regular in the Scottish national side and the European XI since the age of 14. But having graduated from school, she wanted to do something “out of the box” and explored possibilities of moving to another country. England would have been the most obvious choice, but she chose to move further afield.The fascinating thing is the route she took to get there – from Edinburgh to Otago via Perth, with Amsterdam being a vital link in the chain. Not quite like taking a flight from Chandigarh to Nagpur, with stopovers in Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai, like they did at the Women’s World T20, surely? It elicits a laugh, before Kasperek takes you on the journey.She was convinced to embark on her journey by Job van Bunge, the Netherlands coach, whom she met while playing for the junior European XIs. “Job wanted to forge better links between European cricket and Western Australia, so he came up with the opportunity,” Kasperek recalls. “It was basically a chance I took to see where I stood, and I was good at it so I knew chances would come. If they didn’t, I could always think about doing something else.”Kasperek partially funded herself while in Perth by coaching the Western Australia Under-15 girls team that took part in the national championships. She also served as a casual cricket officer with Western Australia. Her primary role, though, was to play and win matches for Western Australia Fury in the Women’s National Cricket League. It was during this stint that the next link in her cricket chain – Otago – was established.Suzie Bates was one of the overseas stars playing for Western Australia. She was already a superstar, having represented New Zealand Women’s basketball team at the Beijing Olympics in 2008. She was on her way to becoming a top international batsman, and had represented New Zealand at the first two editions of the Women’s World T20.Western Australia Fury was coached by Steve Jenkins at the time, who had already worked as head coach of the New Zealand Women’s team.”They saw something in me and asked me if I could consider coming over to New Zealand to play,” Kasperek says. “Of course, there were no guarantees that I would get to play at the senior level or even break into the state’s starting XI immediately. But it was a chance I took, again. I mean, why not? I surely could give it a shot. After thinking about it for a bit, I thought, ‘Right, I’m going.’ So that was another turning point for me.”Kasperek headed home to Scotland for a break, before flying to Wellington, where she played for a year, before making a switch to Otago Sparks. Her peak performances coincided with her complying with her three-year eligibility criteria for national selection. The call she was waiting for finally came in June last year, from Haidee Tiffin, the head coach of the national team, when Kasperek was at the movies.”My parents were pretty rapt when I told them, although when I called them they had just woken up, so they were a bit dopey on it and it took them a bit to process it,” she remembers. “I wanted to learn in that environment, so getting to play was a bonus.”Having taken an unconventional route to the top, Kasperek hopes she can stay there for the better part of the next decade, at least. With New Zealand Women cricketers still moving towards professional from semi-professional, Kasperek says there are challenges that lie ahead. Still on a temporary work visa, Kasperek, who holds a UK passport*, hopes to get her permanent residency next year, which would enable her to start applying for a full-time education degree or jobs.”For now, while not playing cricket, I do gardening and paint pieces of art work for people,” she says, satisfied with how her time in New Zealand has been spent.Now for her to paint a pretty picture with the White Ferns in India.*09.35GMT, March 21: The article had erroneously referred to Leigh Kasperek holding a Scottish passport. This has been corrected.
