Image Credit- ICC
It took the tears
four seconds to come, but Sophie Devine warned them they were on their way. She
was aching for every New Zealand player she was responsible for, whose T20
World Cup campaign was essentially gone before it had started, at Paarl in
February 2023. Following consecutive crushing defeats by Australia and South
Africa, the captain of the White Ferns longed for a fast solution but realised
there wouldn’t be one and that a lengthy journey lay ahead.
After a year, Devine
claims that more effort needs to be done in order to catch up to Australia,
England, and India in terms of depth. But she views the T20I and ODI series
that New Zealand played at home against England as a guide before their return
series in the English summer and another T20 World Cup in Bangladesh. The main
cause of New Zealand’s worries is that, in a nation where rugby union and
netball are the most popular sports, the country has a far smaller population
than its main competitors—just over five million people.
“Being brutally
honest, no, there’s not much depth coming through and that’s where we’ve got to
be realistic as a country, we don’t have millions of people that are playing
cricket,” Devine told the ESPNcricinfo Powerplay podcast. “Although
there’s been every intention to try and attract players, it’s similar to the
men, we’re a small country and we’ve got to make the most of what we’ve got.
“We’ve got a great domestic set-up in terms of the teams and the amount of
games played, and I guess I’ve been lucky to have seen Australian Cricket for a
number of years, both involved and also from the outside, and see the work
that’s been put into their domestic set-up. That’s what has laid the platform
for them to be so successful over the last 10, 15 years, the development of the
professionalism of the game and the domestic set-up.
“We’re still a fair way off that, and so I think there’s always going to
be a bit of a gap. When you see the White Ferns and the contracted players and
then the domestic players, bridging that gap is going to take time. But that’s
not to say that a lot of work hasn’t been put in through New Zealand
Cricket.”