Suzie bates during her stint in Durham in England. Photo: ACTION FOTO SPORT / AFP
A successful stint in England has White Ferns veteran Suzie Bates confident she still has something to offer the game.
Bates has just finished playing for Durham in the ECB's new domestic women's competition this year where the eight top division teams were all fully professional.
The 37 year old was Durham's first ever women's overseas player and helped the club to mid-table finishes in both the T20 and 50-over competitions in their inaugural season.
During her stint Bates became the oldest player to score a century in their 50-over competition.
She smashed 163 off 140 balls against Somerset, her 29th century in List A cricket.
She was also the leading run-scorer in the T20 Blast and averaged 52 in the 50-over game.
Bates told RNZ it was a real boost at an important time on her career.
"When you get a bit older and lose a bit of form you do start to wonder if you're near the end, but if you're scoring runs and your body and mind are good then you want to keep going," Bates said.
She has just arrived back in New Zealand and will now start preparing for the World Cup in India in October.
"(The 163) was a perfect way to end the season and it was nice to leave on a good note.
"Leading into a 50-over World Cup to have a score like that under my belt and, more importantly, to spend that amount of time out in the middle really helps when you have a big tournament coming up."
Since making her debut for Otago in 2002 and the White Ferns in 2006, Bates has played in most of the cricketing nations around the world.
New Zealand's Suzie Bates Photo: Kerry Marshall/www.photosport.nz
When the opportunity came up to return to England this year she didn't hesitate.
It also meant she didn't have to spend all of the New Zealand winter just training and instead got to be out in the middle playing cricket.
She said Durham (and its director of cricket, the former Australian international Marcus North) were keen to have an experienced player to help, especially with some of their players 20 years younger than her.
"The fact that I've played for a long time and probably seen it all in women's cricket was an appeal for the club."
Bates, the most capped New Zealand women cricketer with 348, said she didn't really coach, but hoped that she was more of a role model for the younger players
"In all my leadership roles during my career I've gone by the motto 'Do as I do not what I say'.
"I find it difficult to tell players what to do; it's more about being in the middle and discussing options. I try not to give younger players too much advice."
Bates has scored 4716 runs in T20 internationals, the most of any female cricketer.
She has scored more than 10,000 white ball runs for New Zealand
The White Ferns will head to the UAE in September for warmup matches before the World Cup in India in October.
