Source: BBC

Durham have signed New Zealand star Suzie Bates as their first ever women’s overseas player.

Bates joins for the entire 2025 season, meaning she will be available for the T20 Blast and the One-Day Cup.

The 37-year-old is vastly experienced with 348 caps for the White Ferns.

Her tally of 4,716 runs in T20 internationals is the most of any female cricketer and nearly 1,000 more than India’s Smriti Mandhana in second place on the all-time list.

She has scored 5,896 runs in one-day internationals including 13 centuries and is the only New Zealand women to score more than 10,000 white-ball runs.

“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,” she told the club’s website, external.

Bates the ‘perfect fit’ for Durham
Bates has been one of the outstanding cricketers in the women’s game since her made her New Zealand debut in 2006.

She also represented her country at basketball in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing before cricket took centre stage.

The right-hand batter was named Player of the Tournament in the 2013 World Cup and the ICC Women’s ODI Cricketer of the Year that same year.

Two years later, Bates was then named Wisden’s Leading Women’s Cricketer in the World.

Then at the T20 World Cup in South Africa last year, she was the leading run-scorer in the tournament as the White Ferns claimed the title for the first time.

Bates has previously played in England for Hampshire and Kent and she captained Oval Invincibles to success in The Hundred in 2022.

“This is an historic moment for Durham, and we are thrilled to welcome a player of Suzie’s calibre to the club,” said , externalDurham’s director of cricket Marcus North.

“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.”

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