Former New Zealand T20I captain Sophie Devine will return to competitive cricket after a break of a couple of months to prioritise her mental health that saw her miss the WPL for RCB and the recently concluded white-ball series against Sri Lanka. Devine, who along with the likes of Lea Tahuhu and Amelia Kerr, returned to the White Ferns' squad for a three-match T20I series against Australia admitted that she contemplated retirement during the break but is still motivated to do well for the Black shirt and that the Women's World Cup later this year in India.
"Completely honest? Yep. Certainly [contemplated retirement]," Devine told reporters on Wednesday ahead of the Auckland opener against Australia. Devine mentioned that age is not by her side and the break gave her the opportunity to take stock of things while realising that she is still enjoying her time being part of the New Zealand team.
"To be able to have to process through a few of those things, obviously I'm unfortunately not getting any younger, so they naturally sort of came into mind. But for me, yeah, look, just really excited to be here, just going to be focusing on each day as it comes and just really enjoying every day with the White Ferns," Devine added.
Devine last played a competitive match on January 24 where she took 5/13 for Wellington in the Super Smash. It was a busy period of cricket for Devine, who had led the franchise in the T20 World Cup, had tours of England and India on either side, and featured in the WBBL for the Perth Scorchers while facing Australia in an ODI series in December. However, not just the World Cup, Devine was also excited for the franchise opportunities that keep coming her way, the most recent one being picked by the Southern Brave for the Hundred in the draft, a switch from the Birmingham Phoenix.
"I've been playing cricket for a very long time and probably looking ahead in terms of what am I going to do when my time does come to hang up the boots.
"Those opportunities are still something that really excites me, being able to go overseas and play in franchise cricket, but most importantly, it's to play for the White Ferns. We've got a pretty big World Cup coming up later this year, which - all going well - hopefully I'll be at.
"Certainly the World Cup was probably the biggest one. I still felt like I've got a little bit more to give in the black shirt. So for me, I guess that opportunity was there, but also being okay with the fact that if I was done, I've had a pretty good run of it. But certainly watching the girls over the last couple of weeks, there's certainly a big itch there that's still to scratch," Devine added.
Suzie Bates, Devine's long-term colleague and teammate, will continue to be the interim captain for the White Ferns in T20Is after the latter relinquished the role following the T20 World Cup.