Hope to do even better: Bates
First Published : 18 Feb 2013, 10:57
Last Modified : 18 Feb 2013, 11:15
New Zealand captain Suzie Bates was adjudicated the Player of the Tournament for her consistent performance with the bat in the 2013 ICC Women’s World Cup. With 407 runs, including a century and three half-centuries, she was the highest run-getter in the tournament. Although New Zealand finished fourth, the 25-year-old batter finished on a personal high.
While addressing the media after receiving the honour, she expressed disappointment on finishing fourth in the prestigious tournament. While speaking about her personal achievement, she said, “From a personal point of view I am proud to receive this award today; there are some really good players here.”
Bates, who had to give up basketball for cricket, added, “Yes, I had to make some tough decisions, and then when I look back on it now it was all worth it. I put more time in my cricket and it’s shown in my consistency in last season and it makes it worthwhile I guess, and hopefully will get only better from here.”
Reflecting on the White Ferns’ performance, she observed, “In terms of exposure probably a big blow for women’s cricket […] but maybe it is a wake-up call for New Zealand cricket. Perhaps realistically where we are at, at the moment, if we don’t make some changes we might fall behind. So I guess that’s one way to look at it, but I still believe we had a team that could have made the final, but we weren’t just consistent enough, we didn’t perform when we needed to.”
“I think if we take a hard look at the way the women’s game is going, and in four years time the likes Sri Lanka and West Indies and South Africa are only going to get better and if we don’t start putting results, playing more tours and playing more cricket, we are going to fall behind. So hopefully back in New Zealand we are well aware of the movements that the other teams around the world are making and hopefully we should keep up with that.”
