Devine, who is captaining New Zealand in her fifth World Cup, will retire from ODIs on Sunday after her team crashed out of the semi-final race with a heavy defeat to India here on Thursday.
When asked about the improvement in domestic cricket in New Zealand, he said, ‘We have to be realistic that these things do not happen overnight. We are not like India. We don’t have a billion people to reach out to. We are actually a small country located at the bottom of the world, with a population of 50 million. Devine said, ‘There are a billion people here and the way domestic cricket is done here is very different to the way we do things in New Zealand.’
She said, ‘I am very excited about the future of women’s cricket. The way work is being done here to advance women’s cricket, I feel that India can become a leading country in women’s cricket. We have clearly seen people’s interest in women’s cricket in the WPL.
Devine said that it became easy for him to decide to retire because he knew that New Zealand had good bench strength. She said, ‘When you think about players like Izzie (Isabel Gage), Brooke (Halliday), Mellie Kerr (Amelia Kerr) and Eden Carson, the way they are really developing themselves, it was easy for me to decide to retire.’ Devine also became emotional on the occasion as her team failed to make it to the semi-finals.