Devine is aware that New Zealand has a chance to leave a lasting legacy at the Women’s World Cup.

However, the captain told the players to focus on what they were doing in the middle rather than the big picture.

In 2000, New Zealand won the Women’s ODI World Cup. The current captain, Sophie Devine, knows that her team has the chance to make a name for itself in a home tournament, but she has told her teammates to focus on the small things instead of looking at the big picture.

New Zealand’s lone triumph in a worldwide competition occurred 22 years ago in Christchurch, when they defeated Australia by four runs in the final. It was a formative moment for an 11-year-old Devine, who has now developed into one of the world’s top players and will lead a team bolstered by recent victory over India.

While numbers are expected to be restricted during the tournament due to COVID-19 limitations, she hopes New Zealanders rally behind their squad in the same way they did during the men’s run to the 2015 World Cup final, when they went unbeaten on home soil.

“That was probably one of the first women’s cricket matches I ever saw on television, and it was a good one,” she remarked of the 2000 final. “There are a plethora of recollections. There are plenty of us who were inspired by those players in that tournament, and it’s fairly fantastic to think that here we are, some two decades later, holding our own World Cup with the chance to perhaps duplicate what they did so effectively in 2000.

“It’s something we’ve discussed as a group. I believe that if we get too absorbed in the external distractions associated with attempting to leave a legacy, we may easily lose sight of why we are here.

“We know that if we play an entertaining kind of cricket that the whole nation can rally behind, we won’t have to worry about leaving a legacy. That, I believe, is something the Blackcaps excelled at in 2015. They really had the support of the whole nation, and we’re hoping we can do the same thing by reigniting the love that so many Kiwis have for their sport, and perhaps enlisting their support as well. “

New Zealand has been candid with itself about the increased strain that comes with hosting a World Cup in the run-up to the competition. The top four teams in each group will advance to the semi-finals.

“We were lucky in that we had some time together before reporting to camp for the India series, which allowed us to discuss these expectations that may have been put on us,” Devine said. “We are aware that people will speak, that there will be an expectation that we will host, that prior winners have been the host nation; nevertheless, for us, it all comes down to our process and ensuring that we continue to do the same things we have been doing over the last couple of months.” At the moment, there is a little more excitement about it being a World Cup, but at the end of the day, it is just another game of cricket. “

New Zealand enter the World Cup on the strength of a 4-1 victory over India in their first ODI series since 2018, and the four victories are more than they have achieved in the previous three years combined, despite the loss of Lauren Down to injury. Devine, who was chosen as permanent captain in 2020, said that she thought the squad was progressing even though the results did not reflect that.

“It’s a tremendous confidence booster for us because we played some terrific cricket,” she said. “What pleased me the most was the group’s consistency; scoring 250 consistently is something we’ve required for the previous couple of years, and being able to do it against a world-class side in India, as well as a number of huge chases, will put us in good stead.”