Hours after the 21,000-strong crowd had dispersed from the Dubai International Stadium on Sunday, the New Zealand team — barefoot and with beers in hand — walked to the central strip where they had scripted history.
Leading the group was veteran pacer Lea Tahuhu, whose ‘mom energy’ around the team had given way to overjoyed boisterousness. The players first tasted the ground, feeling its tiny blades of grass, followed by some joyous dancing. There was no outdoing a thrilled Suzie Bates in this department, as she went around the huddle and pumped up the group.
Much like the Australians did (and had done for years) when they won the 2022 ODI World Cup, their cousins across the Tasman Sea sat in a circle and raised a toast to a campaign that had been nothing short of miraculous.
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Everyone aims to win World Cups, but when you enter a tournament with Australia, England, and India waiting to devour you at first sight, a knockouts finish might not be the worst ‘small’ ambition to have. Those little bricks of belief helped New Zealand build something special in a city that knows a thing or two about constructing wonders.
Twenty-four years ago, Emily Drumm and Debbie Hockley’s White Ferns pulled off a four-wicket win over Australia to lift the ODI World title at home in 2000. It was a different era, when Australia, England, and New Zealand were the primary cricketing powers, while the likes of India were managing small acts of defiance, but nothing comprehensive enough to upset the established order.
Fast forward to the present, and these traditional powers now face the challenge of women’s cricket improving worldwide, with margins of competition narrowing rapidly, particularly in the last five years.
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Back to the roots
Once the Kiwi huddle was done and the victory was discussed, Amelia Kerr — the player of the final and the tournament, the first to earn both awards — brought out her guitar. After a few vocal warm-ups, the White Ferns group took a few steps back to address their captain, Sophie Devine.
Win for the ages: Devine’s fortune in World Cups was filled with heartbreak. New Zealand was knocked out in the group stages in all editions across two formats until the 2024 edition. | Photo Credit: AP
Amelia’s sister Jess led the vocals as the group sang ‘Te Iwi E’, a Māori song that expresses pride for one’s ancestors who made sacrifices for their land.
“Rū ana te whenua whatiwhati. Hei! (The ground shakes and quivers, yeah!)” Devine joined in, before an emotional ‘thank you’ left her lips, the NZ captain visibly humbled and a little embarrassed all at once.
The players and staff then queued up to give Devine a long, tight hug. Also present were family members of the White Ferns, with former New Zealand cricketer and Maddy Green’s partner Liz Perry and broadcaster and Bates’ partner Scotty Stevenson at the forefront of the celebrations. After the high-octane and public coronation as world champion, the group needed that private moment to pinch itself out of the shock of the occasion and realise that it had indeed conquered the world.
Cricket may not be war, but Devine — alongside others of the old guard, Tahuhu and Bates — have been through the wringer in their own journeys in this game.
Devine is an eloquent speaker, a trait we’ve unfortunately seen more in New Zealand or her franchise’s defeats. She is happy to bare the wounds of the game, honestly dissect fault lines, and exude positivity for the players under her care and the fans pinning their hopes on them.
On Sunday, for a change, Devine was lost for words when called upon by Mel Jones to make sense of the triumph.
“Once I get my hands on that trophy, it will sink in,” she said. “I started to dream last night about what it feels like to hold the trophy with this team. I didn’t want to get ahead of us. It’s been a long time for this group, for Suzie and Lea, for New Zealand cricket. The great thing about this group is we know what we have been trying to achieve in the last 15, 18, 24 months. We kept taking steps in the right direction.”
Losing 10 games in a row to rivals like England (home and away this season) and Australia is not the best confidence booster in a World Cup year.
The batting order was not clicking, and questions were asked of Devine as to why, during a tournament as important as this, she wasn’t pushing herself up the order to give New Zealand a better start. There was an added veil of pressure after she revealed that this would be her last tournament as the captain of the White Ferns.
“You want momentum, and we came to the World Cup on the back of 10 successive losses. But everyone starts on zero,” she said early on in the tournament.
Glass ceiling
Devine’s tenure as skipper of this group began full-time in 2020, when the world was plunged into the uncertainty of the pandemic. Her predecessor and Tahuhu’s partner, Amy Satterthwaite, had taken time off to have her first child, leaving Devine in charge. It was a transitioning team for the Kiwis, with several familiar faces making way for a new generation of talents.
Devine’s World Cup journey has been riddled with misfortune. In the 2010 edition, a then 20-year-old Devine was in the middle of it all when New Zealand fell short after needing five runs off the last ball. As captain, she watched the White Ferns exit World Cups across two formats in the group stage.
The 2024 edition was a welcome departure. The side’s run to the semifinal involved plenty of belief in different players who stepped up in various games.
Passing the baton: The younger players in the team have also allowed the old guard to go through the rigours of the tournament on a lighter note. | Photo Credit: AFP
Rosemary Mair, who returned to the side after a back injury layoff, starred with the ball, particularly against India in the campaign opener and South Africa in the final. Bates and Georgia Plimmer put in a spirited shift at the top of the order.
Amelia was talismanic for the side as expected, positioning herself nicely to be a key contender for the captain’s armband after Devine. In the final, she battled cramps and struck with both ball and bat to help the White Ferns make history. So many of these individual player journeys intersect with Devine and Bates and the doors they opened for the generations after them.
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“I was inspired to be a White Fern watching that 2010 World Cup which Sophie was at (New Zealand agonisingly lost that final to Australia by just three runs), and from that moment, I was at the nets with my dad, pretending I was batting with Sophie and Suzie. Being in the team so young and playing with my role models, who have been so good to me and are two of New Zealand’s greatest ever cricketers…is incredible,” Amelia said after the triumph, with Devine by her side.
“I don’t necessarily believe you deserve things in sport, but if any two people do, it’s Sophie and Suzie. And I just think back to myself as a kid who was batting with Sophie and Suzie in the nets. When I was in primary school, in creative writing, I wrote about winning a World Cup with Sophie and Suzie. So, to be here now, having done that, I think that’s probably why I’m so emotional. It’s so special when I think back to my younger self and then about being here now, doing this with two of New Zealand’s best ever.”
Devine has been at the helm of the White Ferns for over 60 T20I matches and 44 ODIs. She will lead New Zealand in the three-match ODI series against India, part of the Women’s Championship, just a few days after winning the final.
The 35-year-old is well aware that her job is to prepare New Zealand for a life after the Bates-Devine-Tahuhu trifecta, and the World Cup has been a perfect way to herald a new chapter while giving the previous one a satisfying end. Performances from Plimmer, Eden Carson, Fran Jonas, and others — with almost every game seeing a new player step up to carry the side through — will be the Kiwis’ biggest takeaway.
To a better future: The end of a two-decade wait and an unexpected triumph for the side are all nudges for the administration to keep improving the ecosystem of the island nation. | Photo Credit: AP
The younger players in the team have also allowed the old guard to go through the rigours of the tournament on a lighter note.
“Half the time I can’t understand what they’re saying, so I need a translator to be able to work out what they’re saying to me,” Devine quipped early on in the tournament.
“The energy that they bring, it’s sort of quite refreshing for the likes of myself, Suzie, and Lea, who have been at a number of these tournaments. To see their eyes light up at different opportunities and to see just being at a World Cup and how special it is, and what an honour it is, has been really cool for us. It doesn’t matter if it’s your first or your ninth. I think this opportunity to represent your country on the world stage is something that should be really special to every single player at this tournament,” she had said then.
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Job well done
Hours after partying well into the night, the White Ferns were up and about in Dubai, some cycling down boulevards, others still in their jerseys with medals on, soaking in the sunrise at the Marina. New Zealand and Devine, at the top, have all earned the right to let the dam break and for the tears to flow.
The end of a two-decade wait and an unexpected triumph for the side are all nudges for the administration to keep improving the ecosystem of the island nation.
But the standout image from the celebrations that followed that last ball was a long, tight hug between Bates and Devine (below), which took fans straight to memories of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli’s emotional embrace after India won the men’s trophy earlier this year, beating South Africa in a nervy final.
Devine and Bates share a sweet moment after the win. | Photo Credit: AP
“We’ve fought our way back to the top,” Bates told broadcasters a few minutes later. “Devine has been so outstanding leading this team… so calm and believing in us. We’ll probably have a cuddle for even longer later because there have been some dark times that only the people in the team understand.
“A day later, during the captain’s photoshoot at the Dubai Marina, Devine reflected on a deeply satisfying end to her tenure as New Zealand captain.
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“That was probably 17–18 years’ worth of emotions, of highs and lows. I think the team has seen a slightly softer side of me this trip. With the realisation that I am not going to captain anymore ... .still being involved with the team and what not moving forward… but I just let them in a little bit more… As captain, you can sometimes be a little aloof. For me, it was about letting those shackles go and being a bit more cuddly. Showing that softer side is important as a leader. It’s important to be vulnerable and to show your side every part. I have got that back in truckloads from this team. There’s a lot of care — whether we won or not — in this unit. It makes this team special and always will.”
That Devine’s side, long-time advocate for equal pay in sports and champion of equal pay as board policy, won the edition where the men and women earned the same prize money is the perfect way to wrap up this World Cup.
Bates had hoped to give her old friend and comrade Devine a special send-off by reaching the semifinal. The White Ferns went on to make the final and win quite spectacularly.
Some fairytales do come true!
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