Suzie Bates: 'I feel like there's no milestones on my list anymore'

At age 38, former New Zealand captain Suzie Bates is closing in on 20 years of international cricket and her 14th World Cup across formats. She spoke to us about keeping herself fit physically and mentally, her love for the game from since when she was a teenager, the growth of the women's game, why she gave up captaincy, her aspirations of making a Test debut, and more.

You were playing for Durham recently, where you scored 163 against Somerset. You were their first overseas player. What kind of space and confidence levels are you in right now heading into the ODI World Cup?
Yeah, it couldn't have gone better, leading into a 50-over World Cup campaign. We finished against Australia in March and had no international cricket scheduled in the calendar. I was interested in playing over in England. Then Durham came calling and I committed to a big chunk of their season. I knew there were eight one-dayers in the first month, which hit the body pretty hard, but to be able to play that volume of cricket and just to a really good standard. Most of the English players were playing those one-dayers to start with. [I] loved my time up there. It was just a really refreshing experience. When you play cricket for a long time, to go into a new environment like that and fully immerse yourself in the club and with the people - it couldn't have gone better. I think I was there 15 weeks and played about 24 games of cricket, so great preparation leading into India.

You've been to India several times. You've said in the past you love touring the country. Your international debut was against India. In the 2013 World Cup here, you were the Player of the Tournament. You've also scored two centuries in India. How are you feeling about the conditions and the format, and the fact that you're visiting India again?
I just have such fond memories of touring India, and as a cricketer, going to India is almost like the pinnacle and the biggest test for a female player, with conditions being so foreign, the temperature, just different culture for a New Zealand player. It's something I really look forward to.

I actually started my career with a tour in Chennai back in, I think it was 2007, for a quad series and maybe back then we were allowed to get out a little bit more. There was a bit less security and [to be] able to just explore places that you'd never been to and the different food and all those types of things I loved as a 19-year-old. We went to Ahmedabad after the [2024 T20] World Cup but that was a very short, sharp trip and we were pretty exhausted after the World Cup campaign.

So to go back for a World Cup, it honestly excites me more than anything I've done recently. In 2013, we had a great time, and I just love playing there - the way the fans are, the conditions, it just tests every part of you mentally, physically, and when you play well, you really feel like you've earned your runs. It's just really satisfying as a player to succeed over there.

You're closing in on nearly 20 years of international cricket, with nine T20 World Cups and a fifth ODI World Cup coming up. Longevity in any sport doesn't come easily. How have you had to take care of yourself physically? How have you had to keep up with the changing times and the evolution of the game in the last ten years or so?
The fact that it's five 50-over World Cups - when I say that out loud, pretty unbelievable. After a disappointing World Cup in 2017 when I led the side in England and we didn't make the top four, and I sort of stepped away from captaincy, I was thinking I was near the end at that time. (laughs)

But we had a home World Cup [coming up in 2022], and I thought: I do want to be a part of that. Then I got injured and Covid hit, but I thought that home World Cup was going to be my last push at a 50-over World Cup as well.

For me, I think the key is just keeping myself physically fit. I think being injury-free since I did my shoulder [in 2020], being able to play cricket, not miss games, has kept me mentally fit as well.

It's not always been easy and there's times you wonder if you're done or not, and how much you have left in the tank. But whenever I've had those thoughts, I've had a bit of a break. I just have never wanted to not be part of this White Ferns team. I've just always had the motivation to want to get up each day and get better, whether that's with my fitness or my batting in particular, and even working on my bowling has rejuvenated me a little bit.

But I think what has probably kept me going is that the game has changed so much - you were in a phase of your career where one-day cricket was the pinnacle, and then 20-over cricket took over and power came into the game, the athleticism. I guess I found it a bit of a challenge to try and keep up with the game and develop in different areas. And that excites me, always trying to get better. So yeah, it's been a journey and it's unrecognisable now where the game's at to where it was even in 2013 at that 50-over World Cup.

I just feel really grateful that my body, my mind, my game has allowed me to keep playing at this level for that long. I'm pretty sure this one will be my last 50-over World Cup (laughs). But as I said, I thought the last two might have been, so never say never! But you know, every four years the 50-over World Cup comes around, and that's what excites me, as teams for four years [you] build up to this and then the best team wins and everyone plays everyone.

You're the leading run-scorer in T20Is, third on the list in ODIs, and you're just two ODI centuries away from joining Meg Lanning at the top for most hundreds. How has being a prolific run-scorer changed for you over the years across formats and conditions to keep up with the evolution of the game?
I feel like I've sort of had different phases of my career. When I started I was so young and naïve, and I was given a role at the top of the order to just go out and play my natural game and that meant a little bit of inconsistency. Sometimes it came off, but then I got to a point that I didn't want to be inconsistent anymore. I wanted to be a consistent run-scorer at the top of the order and it was through mainly 50-over cricket [that] we got our opportunity. So I really worked on my game and being able to bat for long periods of time and still score runs, but tactically just being a bit smarter.

And then 20-over cricket came on board and I probably just went out there and swung the arms a little bit initially, and then, you know, the game changed and strike rates became really important. When I first started, you could get 50 off 50 and still put your team in a winning position, whereas I think now a 140-150 strike rate is the key to a top-order batter. That's been a challenge, to bring that power game in and be willing to get out at times, and not fear getting out to take the game on.

So I've tried to go along with the game as it's progressed and watched other players around me and how they've been successful and gone about it. I've had to change, I've had to dig deep and figure out what my 20-over game looks like and what my 50-over game looks like, and there's been runs of form and runs of not scoring and starting to doubt what you're doing and then being able to figure it out again.

Yeah, it's just the whole roller-coaster ride of cricket and trying to stay consistent with how you prepare and how you train - that's all I've tried to do. And when you do that, the runs tend to come back eventually and then you make the most of them.

There's one shot I want to ask you about specifically: when you shuffle around the crease and play the ball behind square. Is that something you started trying out on your own in the nets or did a coach or team-mate suggest it? We hardly see anyone else play it.
In my head when I'm playing it, it's just like a lap. (laughs) But when it comes out on the field, I don't know what you'd call it - it's like a jump right across, get front-on. That's not how I think it is in my head! But I guess it came a bit like [how] Brendon McCullum played a scoop.

Yeah, just accessing different areas of the ground, and I think everyone set straight fields for me, so initially [that helped to] play that shot. But I don't practise it in the nets. It's like if the field is set and I know there's pace on the ball, it comes out and it's almost not how I intend to play it, but that's how my body gets in that position. I'm just thinking about hitting the ball there and that's what comes out.

You're also not too far away from 200 ODIs. Is that on your list?
No, I feel like there's no milestones on my list anymore. I hear other players talk about [it], but as you get older and you know you're near the end, you honestly do go into every game wanting to contribute to a win, and it's as simple as that. So if I'm scoring runs at a decent clip and that's putting our team in a winning position, it doesn't matter what I've done previously or what I'm going to do in the future. That's all I tend to focus on and those things [milestones] sort of happen.

But I know when I do finally hang the spikes up and put my bat away in the cupboard, which will be a sad day, I'll look back and be really proud of my ability to keep going at this level. Winning the World Cup was the only thing I really cared about, and we managed to do that with the 20-over World Cup. But to get a 20-over World Cup and a 50-over World Cup before I retire would just be the absolute best. I'd sleep very peacefully after that.

You played basketball in the 2008 Olympics and now cricket is going to be part of the 2028 Olympics. Are you thinking of having another shot at an Olympic medal 20 years later?
When I heard cricket was going to the Olympics, it excited me, but more for the game and more for younger players in New Zealand. My experience as a 19-year-old athlete from Dunedin growing up wanting to play sport and watching the Olympics, to go to that [2008 Olympics], I remember how inspired I was by all the athletes around me. I just wanted to be an athlete. It didn't matter what it was. I found that environment so special. We got a little bit of a taste of it as cricketers at the Commonwealth Games. So yeah, it's a huge step for cricket if I get that opportunity because it's one of the greatest events you can go to as an athlete. Maybe I'll be there in a different capacity, but whatever happens, it would just be a great thing for the White Ferns and for cricket.

A day before the T20 World Cup final last year you said how proud you were of breaking down barriers in the game by playing in the mid-30s as a female cricketer. There are quite a few in that age group for this ODI World Cup - Alyssa Healy, Chamari Athapaththu, Harmanpreet Kaur, all around 35-36, and Ellyse Perry is getting there as well. What do you think this means for the game, for young girls watching?
I guess it shows where the game is at professionally. I remember growing up in the White Ferns and watching players at 27-28 probably in their prime having to retire because they couldn't financially justify carrying on with what was almost a hobby. And if you had a mortgage or a family or other things, it just wasn't financially stable enough to carry on. It wasn't necessarily by choice that they stopped playing. What makes me so happy and so proud is that players now - like the men - can make a career from it for as long as they want to. And if they are physically healthy, and mentally motivated to play, they can have a 20-year career, which wasn't a possibility ten years ago.

If players want to have families and come back and play, there's all that support around that. There's just different options for young females growing up. It was a bit of a battle for some of us, but the ones that are still playing are fortunate enough. Now it's their job, so they can still do it.

I reckon I was just on the edge of becoming professional when I was at an age where I might have had to step away, so just so grateful and lucky that I've been born in this generation. It is really cool to see someone like Ellyse Perry, Chamari Athapaththu… We've watched the game grow globally, we've played against each other, we've played on the same team at FairBreak [Invitational T20], at Sydney Sixers [in the WBBL]. Yeah, those players have been through that whole journey, and you've watched how their games evolved. And as much as they are competitors, you're proud of how they've gone about their game as well because they've been inspirational in their countries and now young girls know that they can do it for as long as they like.

Do you think the way you love the game has changed over all these years - like when you were as a teenager, then the captain, now a senior player having won the T20 World Cup?
Yeah, it's like my game that's gone through phases as well. I think when I was 18, making my debut in Lincoln against India, I just thought I was in the greatest team in the greatest place in the world, playing international cricket. I just went out there and thought: this is the greatest sport, like the greatest level of cricket that I can play, and I just absolutely loved it.

And then you get expectations of yourself as you get older, of wanting to contribute more and be consistent, so you're a bit harder on yourself. Then I became captain. You get involved in all the off-field [decisions] - you probably can take it a bit serious and everything seems so important.

I think that, later on in my career, I wasn't just thinking about my enjoyment of the game, it was: how can we get better every day and how can we do things differently? You get involved in the politics of the sport and what we need to do domestically, which is not really your scope. So the enjoyment probably suffered a little bit.

Then I gave up the captaincy and we had Covid and cricket was taken away and you realise how much you missed it. I was also injured and was like, "Oh, I've missed cricket so much." You kind of have a taste of what it's like without it. Then you get older and you're near the end and you just want to enjoy it as much as you can because you know you're going to be a long time retired and you're going to miss it. So I feel like that joy has always been there, but I've probably dug deep at times.

But now it's just all about the joy of playing, because you just get a perspective of life and you realise how lucky you are to be doing what you're doing. If you're not having fun, I think that's when you know to walk away.

Before the T20 World Cup began last year, New Zealand lost ten T20Is in a row, and suddenly you weren't among the favourites. How was that experience - coming into a tournament with that kind of form and then going on to lift the trophy?
It almost freed us up a little bit, because I know as a senior player, and especially with someone like Sophie Devine, we've gone to those World Cups with really high expectations because the potential of our side - if we played our best - is high and then we've disappointed at those tournaments. So by almost playing so badly in the lead-up and not being able to get a win off England [on the tour there], it was like other people's expectations were low and they almost freed us up to make some upsets.

You know New Zealanders love being the underdog, and we went into that tournament knowing we had to play India and Australia in our pool and probably had to beat one of them. So that first game [against India] was really important and we started well and the momentum kind of went with us from there. Then the belief grew - we were still underdogs and we kind of took that tag on.

And once we started that tournament, I knew we could win it, because I felt like we'd made progress even though we were failing. We were playing the game plan, we stuck with the players that we had, we didn't make changes, and the coaches were so sure of what they were telling us to do that we didn't lose confidence. It was just almost like once we won that [India] game, the momentum just grew, the belief grew, little things went our way. It was just an unbelievable experience to go from being in England and sitting in the changing room wondering where the next win was coming [from] to lifting the World Cup and forgetting about that tour completely. Like, it doesn't matter when you win a World Cup what happens before. So it was really special.

You've been playing T20 leagues around the world now - the Big Bash and the Hundred, to name a couple. But you haven't had a chance to play in the WPL yet.
That was probably one of the most disappointing things, personally, because I just feel like I've been part of so much of the women's games, and I was involved in the exhibition games [Women's T20 Challenge] and being part of the Big Bash for the first time, and the Hundred and all those competitions.

I love being around the best players in the world and playing cricket in India and the WPL was just something that all the players were so excited about. So yeah, you were gutted to not be a part of that, and obviously the first three years players were retained. But it's something I still would absolutely love to do before I retire.

It is just so amazing to see the game grow in India and it's a little bit daunting for the future for countries like New Zealand, when you see the number of players and the resources, and just playing in those atmospheres and under that amount of pressure that it's gonna put them in good stead for the future. But yeah, I love watching and following it. India is a special place for a cricketer, so you always want to be a part of those big tournaments.

I have to ask you about Test cricket as well because ten years ago in Bengaluru, you had said that you felt a bit cheated that you had not played a Test at that time. New Zealand have not played a Test match since 2004. How do you feel about that now?
I'm envious. I've said this in another interview that I watch the [Women's] Ashes and even when I watch men's Test cricket and they talk about it being the toughest game - [that] it tests your skills, it tests you mentally, it tests you physically. As an athlete and a sportsperson, I want to be tested. So when there are women's Test matches on, you're like, "Oh I wonder what I'd do in this situation or how I'd go about it." And to not have that opportunity when others are playing it - you do want to experience it.

I understand the decisions and the politics of it at times, but as a player I'd love to have a taste of how I would handle that mentally and physically. If it happens and I'm still playing, I will be over the moon. I do think for the future of the game - I think Virat Kohli's talked about it - that is still where you learn the most about the game and where you are tested. If a young New Zealand player gets to play a four- or five-day Test match in India, in those conditions, with the ball turning, the amount of learning compared to a 20-over game… you just can't compare. So I think there's space for it, but those decisions aren't up to me.

You've spoken in the past about how you don't give much verbal advice to youngsters. You prefer to let your game do the talking on the field. But as far as longevity and staying fit and being successful and achieving excellence is concerned, what kind of advice do you have for youngsters?
Yeah, I do find that difficult [to give advice to youngsters] because everyone's on their own journey and everyone's motivated differently, and I think I was inspired by watching people's actions, not what they said.

I guess if I wanted to give these young girls advice, it'd be like: work as hard as you can to make the most of this opportunity. They have the world at their feet in terms of [things] like financial support. We have three full-time coaches for the first time as the White Ferns. They have everything available to them if they wanted to get better.

And it's not saying "back in my day", but you had to go looking for it [back then] and there were barriers and there wasn't financial support. If you want to play for 20 years, there is every opportunity to do that and if you love the game and you want to see how much you can get out of yourself, then work hard every single day to get better when you're at training. Yes, have breaks because that's really important too, because now it's a job, but don't leave any stone unturned. I could say now if I stop tomorrow, I gave everything I had to my game. Yes, I made mistakes, and yes, I would maybe have done some things differently, but I gave what I had at that time to be as good as I could be and for as long as I could, so I don't have any regrets.