Amy Satterthwaite has expressed disappointment at losing the New Zealand captaincy to Sophie Devine on her return from maternity leave. Satterthwaite took a break from cricket last August as she prepared to have her first child with her wife and team-mate Lea Tahuhu. In her absence, Devine led New Zealand at the T20 World Cup in Australia on a temporary basis, before being named permanent captain last week..
“It was obviously disappointing not to retain the captaincy,” Satterthwaite said. “I really enjoyed the opportunity to do it last year, It’s always a real a honour to lead your country.”
However, Satterthwaite, who is now vice-captain having led New Zealand in 19 internationals, said that she had turned her attention towards returning to international cricket, and as a senior player, offered her full support to her successor Devine.
“But I’ve got a different focus now in terms of getting back to being able to play cricket at the international level,” Satterthwaite said. “I’m really excited about the challenge that lies ahead. Looking forward as well to supporting Sophie (Devine), and I’ve always, I guess, been in and around the leadership group over the last few years, even when Suzie (Bates) was involved. So I think it doesn’t change in terms of offering that leadership, in that sense.”
With Satterthwaite, Devine, and former captain Bates, New Zealand feel they are in good hands.
“Yeah, absolutely, the three wise women, as we probably call ourselves,” Sattherthwaite said. “We’ve been around for a wee while now, and got a lot of experience. That’s sort of the beauty of the group we’ve got. People that we can lean on. I guess between the three of us, we’ve probably got different strengths that we can offer towards the group from a leadership point of view, that’s always a real asset, I think.”
Satterthwaite added that she was “loving the challenge” of motherhood despite “those sleepless nights”, and was slowly beginning to strike a balance between her new responsibilities and training.
“Loving it [motherhood]. It’s a big challenge, isn’t it?” Satterthwaite said. “But it’s been a lot of fun. Makes it worthwhile, those sleepless nights. That’s what brings a different challenge in trying to train as well. Starting to slowly learn the balance in trying to make that work.”
Satterthwaite returned to training as both the women’s and men’s squads assembled for a four-day camp at New Zealand Cricket’s High Performance Centre in Lincoln for the first time since cricket came to a standstill in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic in March. While admitting that the conditions at this time of the year posed a unique challenge, Satterthwaite said that she was slowly getting back into the groove.
“It’s nice to be back. Good to be back around the girls. The banter’s always good fun,” she said. “To get back to hitting balls, and feeling like I hadn’t left to a certain extent, but it’s always different to be back on grass too, it’s a different challenge.
“Yeah, it’s been going pretty well. I think I sort of took my time to ease back into it, and not rush it too much, and I guess let the body adjust back. Adjustments been going pretty well so far, thankfully. I was a bit nervous, to be honest, to be hitting balls for the first time, but somewhere deep within there was that sort of muscle memory of being able to do it, and thankfully it’s been going alright, and dusting off the cobwebs.”
Satterthwaite conceded that New Zealand had a few back-breaking months ahead of the 50-over world cup at home early next year, but saw it as a massive opportunity for this group of players.
“Doesn’t get much bigger than having a world cup at home, does it? We’re really looking forward to that, and we’ve got a lot of hard work to do between now and then, and hopefully going ahead. But we’re really excited about what that opportunity offers us as a group.”