Sophie Devine has never been shy about where she thinks the sport should be heading, yet even she paused for breath when the auction paddle went up. Welsh Fire paid £210,000 for the New Zealander in the first women’s Hundred auction, the highest price on the day and comfortably more than most men earned in the tournament’s early seasons.
“Look, certainly exceeded expectations by a fair stretch,” Devine said a few hours later, cup of coffee in hand. “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.”
The 36-year-old will link up again with Michael Klinger, her coach at Gujarat Giants earlier in the year. Welsh Fire wanted an experienced finisher who bowls useful medium pace; Devine still covers both bases even if she jokes the knees need longer to warm up these days.
Money talk aside, her focus now jumps back to New Zealand duty. A five-match T20I series against South Africa starts in Dunedin next week, Devine’s first Black Caps appearance since she retired from fifty-over cricket after last year’s World Cup. She remains on a casual NZC deal, hand-picking T20 assignments with the June T20 World Cup in England circled in thick pen.
“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.”
Those matches will also be her first since handing the captaincy to Amelia Kerr. Early signs are positive: New Zealand beat Zimbabwe in both white-ball formats last month, Kerr named Player of the Series twice.
“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…”
She trails off, laughing at the slip, then shrugs – a neat reminder that even world-class players aren’t word-perfect. And that, perhaps, is the real charm of a day when women’s cricket felt flush, yet still grounded.
