Sophie Devine: Ladies’s cricket is unrecognisable from once I started, will be the chief in girls’s sport worldwide

Outgoing New Zealand captain Sophie Devine bid a quiet farewell to the One-Day recreation, with the White Ferns on the receiving finish of an eight-wicket thrashing by England of their ultimate league recreation within the Ladies’s ODI World Cup 2025 in Visakhapatnam on Sunday.

The 36-year-old mirrored on her profession with broadcaster and former England worldwide Isa Guha.

“Disappointing, to be sincere. To not make it about myself, however I actually needed to exit on a excessive, and right this moment’s efficiency simply wasn’t that. So, credit score to England – they caught at it and did the job with the bat. However sadly, it’s not the way in which we needed our event to go. There are greater issues in life, so we’ll transfer on,” Devine mentioned.

Devine had introduced her resolution to name time on her ODI profession forward of the event. A tearing up Devine was an everyday sight throughout nationwide anthems all through New Zealand’s fixtures within the showpiece. 
| Photograph Credit score:
Okay.R Deepak

Twelve months in the past, Devine’s aspect received the T20 World Cup within the UAE, beating South Africa within the ultimate. She drew on the boldness that triumph gave the outfit.

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“Oh, look, I feel it’s nearly confidence and perception. We most likely spoke about it after the World Cup win final 12 months – that we’re ok to be right here, and after we play our greatest cricket, we are able to beat any staff on the earth. We simply need to maintain believing. I’m actually excited in regards to the expertise that’s beginning to come by way of now, the youthful power and playfulness throughout the group. I imply, they’re beginning to bully me already, which is a little bit of a priority, however they’ve obtained such a excessive ceiling to develop, and for me, it’s about self-belief and figuring out that their finest is sweet sufficient.”

Devine had introduced her resolution to name time on her ODI profession forward of the event. A tearing up Devine was an everyday sight throughout nationwide anthems all through New Zealand’s fixtures within the showpiece.

“Yeah, I truly most likely didn’t cry as a lot as I assumed I used to be going to. There have been a couple of tears within the anthem, however the beauty of saying it early was that I used to be capable of course of a number of these feelings and, talking with my assist community again residence, it was nearly having fun with right this moment – going again to the roots of why I performed the sport 19 years in the past: to play alongside my mates. Yeah, the outcome didn’t go our approach, however for me, truthfully, it was by no means in regards to the outcome. It was about ending right here with my mates. It was good to complete with Suzie Bates bowling down the opposite finish – I needed to rig that a little bit bit – however sharing that together with her was actually particular. We’ll spend a little bit of time within the altering room tonight, mirror, have a couple of laughs and drinks, however I’m simply so humbled and lucky to have accomplished this as a profession for 19 years.”

She was given a guard of honour by England and New Zealand gamers after the English wrapped up an eight-wicket win.
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Getty Pictures

Devine, Bates and Lea Tahuhu, the staff’s senior trio, love calling themselves the ‘Grandmas’ of the staff. Whereas Devine has retired, Bates and Tahuhu haven’t made any such selections on their careers public.

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“No, they’ve completely shut up store, so I don’t know. They simply left me out to dry a little bit bit. However each of them might maintain going for a lot of, a few years. I don’t doubt that. It’s utterly their resolution, and after they make it, it’s as much as them. These two gamers particularly have performed such an vital function in my profession, and I really feel so fortunate to name them a few of my finest mates. Every time they do name time, I’ll be proper there on the sideline cheering them on.”

Talking in regards to the evolution of the sport over time, Devine mentioned the sport has grown exponentionally within the 19 years she has been part of the ecosystem to this point.

“It’s so unimaginable to consider the expansion of the ladies’s recreation. Enjoying alongside, all these years, a really very long time in the past, and to see the place the sport’s obtained to now by way of the funding, the assets, the alternatives, it’s virtually unrecognisable from after we began. So to see the place the sport can proceed to go… I’m so enthusiastic about that and I’m going to be the largest supporter of the ladies’s recreation as a result of I nonetheless suppose there’s (nonetheless) to this point this recreation can go and I feel it may be an actual chief within the girls’s sports activities house all over the world, so it’s a massively thrilling time.

She made her ODI debut on October 22, 2006 in opposition to Australia and since then, has scored 4279 runs within the format. In ODIs, she has scored 9 centuries — her ninth ton got here through the ongoing World Cup — and her highest particular person rating stays her 131-ball 145 in opposition to South Africa through the 2013 World Cup, additionally in India.
| Photograph Credit score:
Okay.R. Deepak

“Classes realized, I feel sport teaches you a large number. I feel even right this moment for me, for instance, completely, we’re skilled athletes and we’re judged by our outcomes, but it surely’s a lot greater than that. For me to get to play alongside my finest mates in a rustic the place it’s simply such an superior alternative and it’s extra helpful and extra rewarding than another issues, so for me it’s simply taught me a lot perspective and it’s most likely taken a little bit little bit of time as effectively.

“In all probability what I’d say to the youthful youngsters is in case you’re using the highs and lows of cricket, it’s going to be a bumpy outdated experience, so get pleasure from it whereas it lasts but in addition realise that cricket is only a recreation and maintain going again to why you play. It’s so vital. What’s your why and why do you retain tuning up. I’ve most likely talked an excessive amount of as normal, however yeah, simply once more, thanks to everybody that’s come out right this moment, but in addition everybody, not simply my teammates and assist workers, however media, opposition. I really feel so blessed to have performed this unimaginable recreation for therefore a few years, however, I’m not totally accomplished simply but. so I’m nonetheless going to be annoying folks across the grounds I’m positive.”

Revealed on Oct 26, 2025