After topping the bidding and earning £210,000 in the inaugural women’s Hundred auction on Wednesday, Sophie Devine, 36, reflected on the growth of women’s cricket.
“Look, certainly exceeded expectations by a fair stretch” Devine said. “The really cool thing for me is just to see where the women’s game’s gone – from back when I first started and you got paid 30 bucks for a weekend to some of the money that was getting thrown around. So, look, I’m certainly really privileged and grateful for the opportunity and to be snapped up.
“But more importantly, to see where the women’s game’s got to… it’s hard to believe that it’s got to this point and it’s only going to continue to get better. So, yeah, really grateful and humbled. I’m sure I’ve already had about five or six people come up to me saying it’s my shout for the rest of my life. So, yeah, I think it’s all good. But for me, it’s a really proud moment for the women’s game.”
Devine will turn out for Welsh Fire, where she will reunite with Michael Klinger. The pair had worked together at Gujarat Giants earlier this year in the WPL.
After time away in overseas T20 leagues, Devine is now preparing to return to action for New Zealand in the upcoming five-match T20I series at home against South Africa. This will be her first assignment for New Zealand since she retired from ODI cricket following the World Cup last year, but she will remain available for T20Is, under a casual contract with New Zealand Cricket (NZC), and has now set her sights on the Women’s T20 World Cup in June.
“I think it [South Africa series] is great preparation for us,” Devine said. “I think we’ve had an excellent build-up. Obviously, we’ve had a whole heap of domestic cricket as well, then Zimbabwe. And then to take on South Africa and England before getting to the World Cup, you probably couldn’t ask for much better preparation.
“I think conditions here are going to be really similar to what we’re going to experience over in England with potentially a little bit of the ball moving around and some good wickets. We want to be able to nail down how we want to go about playing the game and to also defend that title. Feels like it was a while ago now but we want to make sure we are doing everything we can to get to the business end of the tournament.”
The South Africa series will also be Devine’s first since relinquishing captaincy. She is now happy to sit back and assist Amelia Kerr, who has eased into a full-time leadership role with Player-of-the-Series performances in the T20I and ODI series wins against Zimbabwe at home recently.
“I was really impressed with the way they went about [against Zimbabwe],” Devine said. “I thought it was clinical. For Melie [Kerr] to lead by example – it’s probably a sign of things to come. I probably have to learn to keep my mouth shut a little bit and just sit in the background and let Melie do her thing. It’s her team and for her to really put a mark on that, I’ll always be around to support and lead in my own natural way but making I give her the space to be able to drive this group forward. She is such an exciting talent and captaincy and leadership is something that is going to come naturally to her.”
