Sophie Devine has been named as the permanent captain of the national side by New Zealand Cricket. Devine steps in for Amy Satterthwaite when the latter decided to take a maternity leave towards the second half of 2019. The 30-year-old Devine was named captain in January this year to lead the Women’s T20 World Cup.
Satterthwaite will now act as a deputy to Sophie Devine.
The all-rounder expressed how grateful she was for this opportunity and spoke of building a strong leadership bond with her second-in-command Amy.
“It’s a huge honour and privilege to be awarded the White Ferns captaincy,” Devine said. “I thoroughly enjoyed my time as captain over the past season. It was challenging results-wise at times, but I feel we are moving in the right direction as a team, both with our cricket and our team culture.
“I’m very much looking forward to working with Amy who has an exceptional cricketing brain and I feel we can form a strong leadership partnership in combination with a well-established leadership group.”
The head coach of New Zealand gave a positive review about the new captain, who, he said, ‘leads with action’.
Sophie Devine went into the T20 World Cup with scores of 72, 54*, 61, 77 and 105 – the first player with five consecutive 50-plus scores in T20Is – and kickstarted her campaign in style with an unbeaten 75 against Sri Lanka. She’d also enjoyed stellar form in the WBBL last year – where she finished as the player of the season with 769 runs at a strike rate of 130.33 and picked 19 wickets too.
The purple continued at home in the Super Sash too. She will now lead New Zealand in the 2021 World Cup, scheduled to be played in February-March.
“Devine is a strong leader, she has her own style and knows what she wants from herself and the team,” head coach Bob Carter said. “It’s a testament to her ability as a leader that her performance with the bat last summer went to a new level. She leads with her actions and the team responds well to her leadership style.
“Amy is on the comeback to cricket after giving birth and she is progressing really well. Having her experience, knowledge and leadership working alongside Sophie is only going to benefit the team.”
New Zealand’s first series after the pandemic break would be against Australia – a limited-overs tour in late September, where they are to play three ODIs and three T20s.
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