The former New Zealand under-19 representative had an excellent club season with the bat, notching 389 runs at an average of 64.83. He also played four games for Otago A, where he was more successful with his left arm tweakers.
The 21-year-old, who is the son of outgoing New Zealand Cricket chief executive David White, has effectively picked up the contract vacated by all-rounder Michael Rippon.
Rippon has transferred to Canterbury, alongside Volts pace bowler Michael Rae.
The Volts had hoped to fill those slots with similar types of players, but have had to reset their sights. Rae’s place when to Wellington’s Luke Georgeson, who is a top order player and fourth seam option.
And White has claimed Rippon’s place.
Rippon is a left arm wrist spinner and a very tidy middle order batter.
White is more of a batter who can bowl some left arm spin.
It is not a like-for-like replacement and the Volts were expected to fill the final slot with a spinner.
But Volts coach Dion Ebrahim has been impressed with White and his ability to knock out runs at age group level.
"He shows a maturity with the way he constructs an innings and is a player who possesses both a touch and a power game," Ebrahim said.
"He has been part of our training group for a couple of years and is someone who is highly regarded within our group. He has a great work ethic and is very coachable.
"And he has a secondary skillset of being a left arm orthodox bowler.
"We thought Ollie ticked a lot of boxes and gives us a lot of flexibility in terms of how we construct our line-ups."
Otago Volts
2023-24 contracted players
Matt Bacon, Max Chu, Jacob Cumming, Jacob Duffy, Dean Foxcroft, Luke Georgeson, Jake Gibson, Andrew Hazeldine, Llew Johnson, Ben Lockrose, Jarrod McKay, Travis Muller, Thorn Parkes, Dale Phillips, Glenn Phillips*, Hamish Rutherford, Ollie White.
*New Zealand contract.
