For New Zealand captain Sophie Devine, the best way to sign off from her innings as the White Ferns skipper may be to help the side to the winner’s podium at the T20 World Cup.
However, for a side which has won just one of the 13 T20Is it has played this year, calling that a tall ask is an understatement.
That said, the possibility of doing something special with the bunch keeps Devine motivated in her final assignment as New Zealand skipper.
“I’d love to be able to lift the trophy with this bunch of players and it has been a little bit weird. I mean I’m not retiring or anything, I’m just stepping down as the T20I captain but it certainly has made me reflect on I guess my career and the opportunities that I’ve had. Thinking back to the first one in 2009 – which probably shows my age – to see the growth of the women’s game is something that I’m incredibly proud of and I’ve been lucky to be a part of,” Devine said.
Leading a bunch of youngsters and encountering a string of defeats cannot be easy.
“The last few months have been crucial in terms of understanding what success looks like to us. It has been a bit different, in terms of not always focussing on the results. Don’t get me wrong, we want to win. But sometimes, when you’ve got players that are so young and so inexperienced in their cricketing journey, especially their international cricketing journey, success looks slightly different. It’s about how they’ve grown as players, what they have learned and how they have developed, not just between World Cups, but between series and camps.”
A major part of that conversation involves being comfortable with the idea of laying the tar for a succession plan to bolster the Kiwis when the likes of Devine, Suzie Bates and Lea Tahuhu walk into the sunset.
A decision in that direction was the captain dropping down to give others space to make the top slots their own.
“I’ve been down the order for close to two years now. It’s part of a broader strategy. I think we’ve been really honest and open about the fact that me and Suzy aren’t getting any younger, and we really want to, I guess, prepare someone like Georgia Plimmer to fill that role, and we think that’s better to do that with her at the top of the order in place of one of us so that when we do call time on our careers, you’re not trying to find two new openers, you need to just fill the one spot alongside her.”
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