Durham Cricket have sent a message with their aggressive signing of New Zealand cricket star Suzie Bates. She is the women’s team’s inaugural overseas player. The self-described red-headed stepchild of the pro soccer world in North America is a club readying itself for the 2025 season. Bates will play in both the T20 Blast and One-Day Cup.
At 37 years old, Bates’s cricketing accomplishments are intimidating. With 348 caps for the White Ferns, she is one of New Zealand’s most decorated cricketers. Bates was named Player of the Tournament at the 2013 World Cup. This was in addition to her winning the ICC Women’s ODI Cricketer of the Year award earlier that same year. This award shines a spotlight on all her incredible gifts and groundbreaking contributions to the beautiful game.
Bates has scored an incredible 5,896 runs in one-day internationals, with 13 of those being centuries. In addition to this, she is New Zealand’s only female cricketer to have scored over 10,000 runs in white-ball cricket. In T20 internationals, she holds the record for all-time runs scored by women cricketers. There she is with a staggering 4,716 runs to her name! Most impressively, she has almost 1,000 more runs than her nearest competitor in India’s Smriti Mandhana in this format. Bates was the leading run-scorer in the 2023 T20 World Cup, further solidifying her status as a top-tier player.
Bates said she was excited to be joining an accomplished team.
“I can’t wait to get over to Durham and join a talented squad and add my experience to the group and get stuck into the season,” – Suzie Bates
Durham officials are just as happy to see her sign. They are confident that her experience will be highly valuable to their squad.
“This is an historic moment for Durham, and we are thrilled to welcome a player of Suzie’s calibre to the club,”
“Her record internationally and domestically is second to none and with a wide range of experience across the globe she will be the perfect fit for our group going into the 2025 season,” – A Durham spokesperson.
Bates has plenty of experience after previous stints with Hampshire and Kent in England, where she showed her adaptability on a number of stages. In 2022 she was captain of the Oval Invincibles who won The Hundred. Her strong leadership skills, particularly her ability to thrive in chaos, really showed during the Women’s World Cup.
Durham should be set up nicely, both for the upcoming season and in the long term. They look forward to Bates bringing her world class cricketing skill sets, leadership and wealth of experience into the squad. Her addition signals the start of an exciting new chapter for Durham’s women’s cricket program.
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