Christchurch City Libraries invites you to check out a 15-minute lounge chat with a unique and outstanding person from our community; a Living Book. Their interests cover music, art, film, social advocacy, the environment, entrepreneurship and so much more.

Frankie MacKay

image used with permission of Frankie MacKay - personal collection

As a child I enjoyed playing any sport I could and ended up representing my country in cricket, the sport that captured my heart.

I have played 60 games across both formats (t20 and one day) for New Zealand in a career that started in 2011. It has been an up and down career, experiencing the highs of travel to countries I never would have travelled to without cricket and playing multiple world cups to the lows of prolonged periods out of the side due to injuries and non selection. In 2022 I was selected and competed in the Women's Cricket World Cup held in Aotearoa/ New Zealand. When I finally took the field on 07 March 2022 it had been 3,307 days since my last One Day World Cup appearance on 15 February 2013. The chance to play in a home world cup was a dream come true and whilst we didn’t win, some of my fondest and proudest memories of my career are from that tournament.

I can vividly remember watching the 2000 Women's World Cricket Cup played in NZ and dreamed of having the chance to do that in my career. To do so was truly special.

Over the last 15 years playing for Canterbury I have seen the sport move from being completely amateur, to televised games, to being semi professional and now for those on New Zealand Z contracts the ability to be fully professional.

I am exceptionally proud to be Canterbury’s captain, to have played over 100 matches for Canterbury in each of the formats and be the holder of domestic records, hopefully I will be able to knock off a couple more before I finish my career.

I have been very lucky to have had some excellent coaches and mentors along the way. Current Blackcaps coach Gary Stead had a huge influence on the early stages of my career. Hopefully, I can have that same influence myself on future players as coaching is something I have been heavily involved in since high school. I am passionate about increasing the visibility of women in sport and encouraging and developing the next generation of cricketers.

Outside of playing cricket myself I am a passionate librarian with Christchurch City Libraries, a television cricket commentator and very recently a radio host. Cricket commentary is something I never dreamed would be possible as a kid so I relish every opportunity to sit in the best seats in the house chatting cricket whilst also trying to smash some glass ceilings for women in sports media.

Ages: All welcome - Youth aged 14 years and under, must be accompanied by a caregiver

Cost: $FREE

Special information:

Agreement to the Terms and conditions is required to participate.
If you would like to make multiple bookings, each booking will need to be made separately on each of the 'Living Book's' own booking pages. Visit our profile to see the other 'Living Books'.

Important information:

Cancellations - Please provide at least 48 hours notice to cancel your booking. If due to circumstances outside of our control, we need to cancel the event, we will make contact with customers as soon as possible
Sold Out? Join Waitlist - There is a limited waitlist available for this programme. If places are still available you will be prompted to 'Join Waitlist' after clicking the 'Register' button

Contact the host of Frankie MacKay a Living Book - T4t