
Cricket legend Suzie Bates finds her second wind in a new home
It's not that it was a late night for the 37-year-old White Fern, but instead it was a long, long day.
Bates and her teammates played a 50 over match away against Lancashire the day before, at the seaside town of Blackpool. On a good day it's a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Durham, situated in the north-west of England, and the best part of 200 kms. It was the fourth away fixture Bates has played in the Metro Bank One Day Cup since arriving in mid-April, so she's becoming familiar with the nation's motorways.
'It's been very busy. We've had two games a week and there's been a lot of travel. The girls said we've spent 53 hours on the bus so far. I did try and ask how many miles that was, but they hadn't worked that out,' Bates says.
The side travel to fixtures the night before but then look to get home after the game has finished, so they can sleep in their own beds. It's meant Bates, who represented New Zealand in basketball at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, has had plenty of travel time to watch the NBA playoffs, play lots of cards, and get to know her teammates better.
2025 has seen the beginning of a new era in women's cricket in England, with the ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board) restructuring the game into a three-tiered domestic competition, calling it 'the next stage in the evolution of women's cricket' as they forecast that there could be an 80 percent increase in the number of professional women players in England and Wales by 2029.
Durham were one of eight counties awarded the highest Tier 1 status, with Essex, Hampshire, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire, Somerset, Surrey and Warwickshire and it's meant that not only have there been opportunities for domestic players, but also overseas talent like Bates.
With a largely young side at his disposal, and needing an opening batter, the idea of having an experienced player like Bates appealed to Durham's director of cricket, former Australian international Marcus North. In their first season, they also wanted an overseas player who was available for most of the season and with a lack of White Ferns fixtures during their season, Bates was well positioned.
'His enthusiasm and how important he thought the women's programme was going to be to Durham for years to come, was a pretty good selling point and just to be a part of something for the first time is obviously special. They've got a great set-up with the ground, the resources and the training facilities,' Bates says.
'It sounded like a really good fit. They were really excited about having a women's team and I could tell they were going to invest a lot in the programme so that excited me.'
The first stage of the 50-over competition is now at an end, with Durham winning three of their eight matches as Bates accumulated 292 runs at an average of 36.5, including three half-centuries. The competition has been of a high standard, with new England head coach Charlotte Edwards wanting all her top players to participate whenever possible.
'I knew as soon as she [Edwards] got the gig they'd all be playing. I think it's brilliant for that to come from the head coach. I know in New Zealand when you have all the White Ferns, all the contracted players, playing Supersmash or HBJ [Hallyburton Johnstone Shield], it just lifts the whole standard and it helps with everything. It helps with confidence knowing that you've scored runs against the best bowling attacks and selectors have a better gauge of where everyone's at, with everyone playing,' Bates says.
'I think in this era when we're professional cricketers, you get paid to play cricket and there's no real reason at the moment that they can't be involved. Some of the teams have some really strong line-ups and yesterday [against Lancashire] it felt like it was potentially good preparation for potentially facing England in India [at the World Cup] with the likes of Sophie Ecclestone, Kate Cross and Mahika Kaur who's just been selected, so for me it's been brilliant. Charlotte's drawn a line in the sand with that. She'll do a great job, she's been successful everywhere she's gone.'
Just as Edwards and Bates played against each other for their countries, Bates has also played against, and with, her head coach at Durham, Danielle Hazell.
'I've played a lot of cricket against her, probably more one day than T20. She was a wily off-spinner and then in her last season we both played at the Adelaide Strikers, so I've had a bit to do with her and she's coached now for a number of years. She's one of the best woman cricketers that the Durham system has produced. She's been coaching Yorkshire but this is much closer to home for her,' Bates says.
'She's brilliant. She has a really good way about her. She's firm but fair and if you're a young player she keeps you in line but she's also really positive. We've managed to win three games, but with those losses it's about making sure that the younger players are learning and taking the positives so I think she's perfect for this type of group. She has a really good relationship with the captain and myself and the senior leadership group work well together so she's got some really good people around her.'
One competition Bates, as an overseas player, cannot take part in, is the Vitality T20 Women's County Cup. Durham have won their only fixture in the competition to date, but this presents an opportunity for Bates, one that she was aware of before she signed on.
'Part of the conversation I had with Marcus [North] initially was just around my plans for the future. I talked about the 50-over World Cup this year, and the T20 World Cup next year. Obviously, I'm much closer to the end [of my career] than the start, and he talked about coaching and I said it's always been something that I've been interested in,' Bates says.
' I think it's actually quite nice when you're in the thick of it, playing and worried about preparing and performing, to then go to a game and I guess just be around the group to bring good energy and not have to worry about performing, and I'm at that end of my career where I'm thinking about the future, so to be able to dabble in bits of coaching and be on the sidelines has been really nice. It's a nice way when you're still playing to be able to experience some of those opportunities and think about what you would do as a coach. I've really enjoyed this group because they're so young and keen and they listen and they ask lots of questions and you feel like you can, not only with performances, but have impact off the field as well.'
Bates will still see plenty of T20 action, with 14 matches lying in wait for Durham in the Vitality Blast, starting with a game against the Bears in Birmingham on May 31, and finishing against Essex on July 18. Then, she'll have two further 50-over games before finishing and heading home after her last game on July 30.
'It's just been really refreshing at this stage of my career to be in a completely new environment, and I think for such a long stint as well to be able to fully immerse yourself in it, whereas a lot of the franchise stuff, you're in and out and you can't really make much of an impact other than runs and wickets, so yeah, I've loved it and feel like it's just a place where I'll have lots of fond memories and hopefully come back at some point.' Bates says.
Once she's back in New Zealand, she'll have a break in August, head to Abu Dhabi in mid-September for warm-up matches before the World Cup in India in October, as the White Ferns look to add the 50-over title to the T20 World Cup they famously won in 2024.
As we finish our chat, I correctly guess that coffee is likely to be next on Bates' list for the day, and sure enough, she doesn't disappoint. After spending the first weekend looking for a quality establishment, her teammates sent her in the direction of 'Fuel Café', which splits the short drive from her home to Durham's ground perfectly. Their barista, Daryl, will provide the refreshments before Bates heads in for a physio session. With Bates away for a total of 15 weeks, you can't blame her for seeking the comforts of home.
'He went to Aussie for a bit and came back and had learnt how to make coffee properly so every day we're pretty much in there. I have managed to find a decent coffee.'

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Otago Daily Times
2 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
'Pretty special': Third-time lucky for the title-winning Tactix
By Bridget Tunnicliffe of RNZ Nothing pleased Tactix coach Donna Wilkins more than seeing her veteran players win their first ANZ Premiership title in the red dress in Auckland on Sunday night. The Mainland Tactix won netball's ANZ Premiership for the first time by stunning the Northern Mystics 58-46 in the grand final. For Jane Watson, Te Paea Selby-Rickit, Erikana Pedersen, and Ellie Bird - they had suffered two heart-breaking grand final losses in 2020 and 2021. They came the closest in 2021, losing by just two goals to the Mystics. By then Karin Burger had joined the side and had well and truly become a stalwart of the team. Wilkins said the thought of winning an elusive title was what kept bringing some of the older players back. "It's pretty special… we don't know who's going to come back next year, our focus has been on finals. For some of those old heads and experienced ones that keep coming back because they want to win a championship, that's what I'm most proud of now they've got it," Wilkins said. Tactix captain Pedersen embraced Selby-Rickit straight after the game. "She just said that she felt relief - was her first emotion and it is a bit like that because I know we deserved to be here and deserved to win, we've worked so hard. "We had a lot of people doubting us, you know as they should, we came to Mystics territory, they were number one but we knew we could do it, we had the full belief, we've trained our butts off. The last few weeks in particular our intensity at trainings have been unreal… we've been coming out of them exhausted." Tactix shooter Ellie Bird capped off a superb season by shooting 50 from her 53 attempts, and even pulled off two intercepts. Just two weeks prior, the Mystics had beaten the Tactix by 14 goals to win the minor premiership and advance straight to a home grand final. Everything was stacked against them - the Mystics have won every grand final they have appeared in, and six of the eight grand finals had been won by the team who claimed the minor premiership. But the Tactix showed a lot of fight when they beat the Pulse in the elimination final and Wilkins philosophy? "Finals netball is getting into it and giving yourself a chance." The former Silver Ferns defensive pairing of Burger and Watson picked up where they left off from that Pulse game. Watson unsettled Australian import shooter Donnell Wallam, who had not looked flustered all season. "They are big game players, they are experienced, they are used to playing against tall shooters. I told them they needed to get touches early and Jane did right from the get-go so it made it a little bit doubtful for them to just let rip and throw that ball in," Wilkins said. "They were doing one or two more passes before they would launch it in, whereas a couple of weeks ago it was just 'catch-boom', so we needed to nullify that connection between Peta [Toeava] and Donnell and I think we did a good job of that. "And because we are so clinical in looking after our own possession off our centre pass, even if teams hit a couple of two point shots, they don't make headway and we showed that on Monday night." Once again Wilkins stuck with her starting seven, apart from a brief period where Pedersen had to come off the court due to cramping. "Everything was going, my toes, my calves, my quads, my hips… but we knew we needed to prepare for a tough game, I think Teeps [Selby-Rickit] started cramping as well," Pedersen said. Despite the cloud hanging over the domestic competition, with Netball New Zealand still trying to pin down a broadcast deal for 2026, Wilkins said none of that was a distraction. "We had an opportunity to win a championship, that's been our focus, it's been about us." She was looking forward to taking the trophy to Christchurch. The Tactix and their National League predecessors, the Canterbury Flames, had not won a title since the introduction of franchise netball in 1998. The Flames played in four Coca-Cola Cup/National Bank Cup finals but lost all four to the Southern Sting. "It's a long time coming, enjoy just being together as a team and enjoy the moment with our family and friends and we'll worry about next year next week," Wilkins said. The Tactix may look a little different next year. Bird is off to Australia and doesn't plan on coming back for another season. It remains to be seen whether the likes of Pedersen and Watson might call it a day. Selby-Rickit had one of her finest seasons and the 33-year-old may well be on the radar of an Australian team. Mentor with her To guide the Tactix to the title in her first season as head coach is a dream start to Wilkins' elite coaching career. Pedersen was full of praise for the former Silver Fern and Tall Fern. "Donna's been in our position, she knows what it's like to play in high pressure matches. She's very disciplined in the way that we play on attack but she's just brought this winning mentality, like even warm up games, she's is all about winning and I love that because I think that's what our Tactix team needed." Competitive, clinical with possession, and sticking with a starting seven are all traits associated with the late great Robyn Broughton, one of New Zealand's most successful netball coaches. Broughton became an icon of Southland netball during her long tenure with the Southern Sting, where she was head coach from 1998-2007, winning a record seven Coca Cola/National Bank Cup titles during that time. Wilkins played many seasons under Broughton, as did Tactix assistant coach Te Huinga Selby-Rickit. When Wilkins was asked what the legendary coach would have made of it, she shared that she treasures a photo of her old friend. "Well I actually brought [the photo of] Robbie with me, I normally talk to her before we play our home games but this week I thought I better take it with me and I think it might have helped. She's always there, God she coached me and Hu [Te Huinga Selby-Rickit] and a lot of the players, it's pretty special," an emotional Wilkins said. Mystics not blindsided The Mystics were denied a historic three-peat and were denied a chance to play their best netball. Despite easily beating the Tactix two weeks prior, Mystics coach Tia Winikerei said they knew the visitors were going to bring some venom. "When you get beaten like that and you're a quality side like they are, you come back fierce and you want to win. "Tactix came out very very strong and we didn't cope with that very well… we let them over power us, we actually just didn't execute what we should have in that first quarter and that hurt us for the rest of the game. "I didn't see any momentum shifts throughout the game and so the story of the first quarter was almost the story of the whole game." Mystics captain Michaela Sokolich-Beatson said they were not blindsided - "They did exactly what we thought they were going to do." The Tactix have now become the fourth franchise to win the title, since the competition began in 2017. The Steel have won twice, and the Pulse and Mystics three times each.


NZ Herald
3 hours ago
- NZ Herald
British and Irish Lions clincher over Australia the best test of season: Phil Gifford
Tick them off. A huge crowd? How does 90,307 sound? Some brilliant old-school attacking rugby from both teams? Yes. Telecast in 130 countries, it was a game to debunk the idea that rugby has lost its appeal to all but an increasingly shrinking group of aged diehards. And to round it off, there was a refereeing controversy that will run for as long as Wallabies fans can still watch television replays and hear the cries of disbelief from commentator Morgan Turinui. Good on you, Sir Clive After losing the first test in Brisbane 27-19, the Australian team copped it from all quarters. Their own media and public were bitterly disappointed, and before the second test, there was a cutting comment from former Lions and England coach Sir Clive Woodward. He suggested the Wallabies were 'boys playing against men'. Few would have dreamed the same Aussie players were about to rock the Lions. Suddenly, the September test with South Africa at Eden Park is not the only major All Blacks showdown Auckland fans should look forward to this year. Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt carried the brunt of criticism after Brisbane, which was a harsh call considering the relatively average performance of Australian sides in Super Rugby. Given the likeable almost ego-free person Schmidt is, it was a pleasure to watch his team respond with such an outstanding performance. The Wallabies revival started in the forwards, with a scrum that was potent and lineouts that operated with impressive expertise. Add in the physicality of giant lock Will Skelton and captain Harry Wilson, and the base was rock solid. Rob Valetini was as dynamic as he has been all season for the Brumbies. He may well be the best blindside flanker currently playing test rugby. When even Schmidt is outraged Schmidt is virtually the anti-Eddie Jones when it comes to stoking controversy. But the Kiwi obviously felt so strongly about a decision in the 77th minute by Italian referee Andrea Piardi and his assistants, he didn't hold back after the game. The officials had taken no action about what Schmidt felt was head-to-neck contact between replacement Lions flanker Jac Morgan and Aussie forward Carlo Tizzano. Had Morgan been penalised, there would not have been time for Lions wing Hugo Keenan to score the 80th-minute match and series-winning try. Because it was Schmidt who made the comment Australia had been let down by the referee, you have to take it seriously. But having watched the chain of events involving Morgan and Tizzano numerous times, it does feel like a hairline decision that could have gone either way. A more picky referee or TMO might have called a penalty. It was Australia's bad luck that nobody in the officiating team in Melbourne was in a nit-picking mood. Man of the match As impressive as so many of the men in gold jerseys in front of him were, my man of the match was Australian halfback Jake Gordon. The 32-year-old veteran and Waratahs captain has a flinty edge to him that's matched by his ability to read the game. Typical of his vision was his try in the 29th minute, when he dummied past bewildered defenders to give his team an 18-5 lead (with Tom Lynagh's conversion) which looked like the basis for a victory. The match-up between Gordon and All Black Cam Roigard will be fascinating when they face off in the Rugby Championship. Jake Gordon of Australia dives to score a try during the second test between the Wallabies and the British and Irish Lions. Photo / Photosport A brilliant idea still working It's one of sport's ironies that despite rugby being an upper-class sport in England from its earliest days, tours by combined British Isles teams began in 1888, with a privately funded trip to Australia and New Zealand that had no official connection to fiercely amateur rugby unions in Britain. Over the centuries, the Lions have become one of the most successful and profitable inventions in sport, to the point where every player on the Australian tour will receive a payout of $210,000. Like most good ideas, the concept of having the best players from four international rugby sides combine to tour the other side of the world seems obvious once it has succeeded. The Lions are powerful enough to be a yardstick for any international team. They also give rugby fans in the Southern Hemisphere the chance to watch superstars from the Six Nations, whose home countries tour Downunder so rarely. Phil Gifford is a Contributing Sports Writer for NZME. He is one of the most-respected voices in New Zealand sports journalism.


Otago Daily Times
4 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Lawson among points again
Liam Lawson of Racing Bulls competes at the Spa-Francorchamps Circuit in Stavelot, Liege province, Belgium. Oscar Piastri passed McLaren teammate and title rival Lando Norris with a bold early move to win the rain-delayed Belgian Grand Prix and extend his Formula 1 lead to 16 points. New Zealand driver Liam Lawson was in the points again, finishing eighth, thanks to an overtake on his teammate Isack Hadjar early in the race. Lawson started ninth on the grid but managed to get past Hadjar when the Frenchman went wide on a corner on lap 12. As the track started to dry, Lawson was then given priority in the pits for a tyre change. The 23-year-old was passed by Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton for seventh place just after coming out of the pits. Hadjar finished last. It is Lawson's third points finish of the season and he is now 14th in the Drivers' Championship with 16 points. Charles Leclerc was a distant third for Ferrari as reigning champions McLaren celebrated their sixth one-two finish in 13 races and the third in a row. The race at Spa-Francorchamps was red-flagged after an initial formation lap and delayed by an hour and 20 minutes due to the weather, with standing water and heavy spray affecting visibility. Piastri was not in a mood for hanging around when the racing got going with a rolling start after four laps behind the safety car. The Australian charged through the spray to slipstream Norris through the daunting Eau Rouge and scythed past on the uphill straight. Piastri pitted on lap 12 of 44 to switch from intermediates to medium tyres and Norris followed a lap later, but opting for hards, before both then went to the chequered flag on a one-stop strategy. Piastri crossed the line 3.415 seconds clear of Norris, who had been chasing a third win in a row and managed to reduce the gap in the final laps with putting the ever-calm Australian under too much pressure. Reigning champion and Saturday sprint winner Max Verstappen finished fourth, in Red Bull's first grand prix since the dismissal of team boss Christian Horner, with George Russell fifth for Mercedes. Williams' Alex Albon held off Ferrari's seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton to secure sixth. Lawson was eighth for Racing Bulls with Gabriel Bortoleto ninth for Sauber and Pierre Gasly securing the final point for Alpine. - RNZ / Reuters