Devine told The New Zealand Herald that, growing up in Tawa, her cricketing heroes were all men: Black Caps batsmen Nathan Astle and Stephen Fleming, and Australian fast bowler Brett Lee.
"I didn’t see many female players — it wasn’t really on TV. The first time I saw a female team was at the 2000 World Cup in Christchurch. I was like, ‘oh, we have a New Zealand women’s team.'"
That, in a nutshell, is why it is important we continue to highlight, promote and support women’s sport.
The gap has closed immensely over the past decade or so — women’s sport is more prominent, its stars better remunerated, its structures getting closer to their men’s equivalents — but let us not kid ourselves that full equality is just around the corner.
Female participation in weekly sport is still 12% less than male participation, and women fill just 27% of governance roles — and a measly 7% of chief executive roles — in the sporting sector.
Visible female role models and female leadership are essential if females are to feel encouraged, empowered and inspired to not only try sport but to stick with it and even see it as a potential career pathway.
It is entirely fair that we can hope for a day when Devine becomes as well known as Hadlee, McCullum or Williamson, or when rugby genius Kendra Cocksedge is mentioned with McCaw, Carter and Meads.
There is also, rightly, a push to ensure it is not just the traditional behemoth of New Zealand women’s sport getting the attention and the resources and the visibility.
This should not be seen as a movement against netball — it is a fine sport, and holds a special place in the fabric of New Zealand society — but it is long past time some other codes got to sit at the top table and feast on more than crumbs.
Fathers, sons, husbands, brothers and male friends can do their bit to make that happen.
Principally, they can make an effort to understand more about women’s sport. Understand that all the things they like about men’s sport — the skills, the drama, the passion, the excitement — are contained within women’s sport. Understand that just because female cricketers do not bowl as fast or hit as hard — relatively speaking; watch Suzie Bates hit a ball and try to argue it is lacking power — or because female rugby players do not pack quite as much intense heat in their tackles as Liam Squire does not make them lesser athletes.
And now they have the perfect opportunity to embrace women’s sport.
It still boggles the mind that New Zealand will host three women’s world cups — in cricket and rugby next year, before the whopper, the Fifa Women’s World Cup of football in 2023. There is also the hugely significant World Conference on Women & Sport here next year.
Women’s sport is nearing its time to shine. And we must all shine a light on it.
