Suzie Bates did.
The veteran White Ferns and Otago opener has announced she will retire from the international game at the end of the T20 World Cup later this year.
Bates has clocked more than 360 international games for her country and scored more than 10,000 runs since making her debut early in 2006.
But her real legacy is the children who have been watching from the sidelines for the past 20 years.
No-one asks to be a role model, but it sits comfortably on her shoulders.
‘‘You never see yourself that way,’’ Bates told the Otago Daily Times.
‘‘I remember having Alison Shanks and Donna Loffhagen [now Wilkins] in Otago that inspired me to be an athlete. And then later on, seeing the White Ferns on TV.
‘‘You don’t walk around thinking you’re a role model and inspiring. But you do realise you can have an impact, and show them what can be done, especially when you’re from a place like Dunedin.
‘‘There is a big world of sport out there if you dream big.’’
Bates got her start in the backyard playing against her brothers. She was still at Otago Girls’ High School when she was called into the Otago Sparks and just 18 when she made her international debut.
She also represented her country at basketball, suiting up for the Tall Ferns for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
For a while there, it was her preferred sport. But cricket offered better pathways and she was one of the first New Zealand women to play the game professionally.
In her prime, she was arguably the best player in the world.
But despite all her success, Bates remained grounded and played the game the way she has always played it — with unadulterated joy.
