I thought I'd get through this without crying - Sophie Devine

After New Zealand suffered a defeat against India, their fate in the ongoing ICC Women’s World Cup was sealed. With no chance to make the top four, the White Ferns will enter their last league stage fixture against England to play for pride, and more importantly, to help finish skipper Sophie Devine's ODI career on a high.

The loss against India though, did sting for Devine, who was quite emotional in the post-match press conference, where she spoke on an array of topics while being on the verge of tears.

Shedding some light on how the team's youth will make up for the void she will leave behind with her retirement, Devine said, “I don't really want to think too much about it because I probably get quite emotional around it. But the way those girls went out there today… I'm incredibly proud of where this team's going. When you think about the likes of Izzy [Gaze], Brooke [Halliday], Melie Kerr, Eden Carson, the way that they're starting to really grow into themselves, it certainly makes it easier when I do step away after the next game, not before.”

She further added, “It is sort of [you feel] a bit like a proud mother, you have been involved in this side at New Zealand cricket for so long that you're so invested. I'm going to go through a few different emotions over the next couple of days, but we'll take time to reflect on that."

Talking about her emotions, Devine added, “I think the really important thing for me is to be authentic, and not just for me or my group, but for you guys as well. I think sometimes people forget that we're human beings and that we do have emotions. We're not just robots out there that go and play and don't have feelings and we don't feel the criticism and we don't feel the hurt. The words that are said about us, expectations.”

Explaining her emotions after the defeat against India, Sophie said, “It's really important to remember that, but also we've got to own up to it. It's the profession we're in. Unfortunately, this right now is a bloody tough thing for me to do. But I also want to front up and still be really proud of what this group's been able to achieve. But I'm not going to sugarcoat it, it sucks. Losing press conferences are probably the hardest ones to do, especially when you've been knocked out of a tournament. At the end of the day, there's not too much positive words I could probably say about it, unfortunately. But that is what it is."

Devine, despite wanting to mask her emotions, opened up on how the weather conditions always played antagonist to the White Ferns' preparations in this World Cup, and that factor has been a tough pill to swallow.

She continued, “I thought I was going to get through this press conference without crying. It's tough, isn't it? Because I know I've spoken about the weather, the weather's followed us, jokes have been made about it. At the end of the day, you just want the opportunity to play cricket. Unfortunately, we had fate in our hands. We lost the first two games, put ourselves under pressure. We lost today. So, it's hard to reflect when nearly half your games have had weather impacted by it. But we haven't been good enough. And that's really tough because the work that this group's put in over the last 12 months has been phenomenal.”

Devine went on, stating, “And that's what sucks about sports sometimes, is you can work harder than anyone in the world, you can do all the right things, but it doesn't guarantee your results out there when it matters. So that's probably going to be the hardest pill to swallow about this campaign. I'm not sure what else we could have done as a group to be better prepared, to be fitter, to be more connected, I don't know. But we've got to dissect it and figure out where we went wrong and where we can improve. It sucks. Unfortunately, there's not much other ways to describe it."