Suzie Bates

Durham Cricket demonstrated their strong intentions ahead of the Club’s maiden season as a professional women’s team with the signing of world-renowned New Zealand International Suzie Bates.

The signature of Bates marks an historic occasion for Durham Cricket with the New Zealand international becoming Durham’s first female overseas contracted player.

Bates joins on a full season contract and will be available for selection in the Metro Bank One Day Cup and Vitality Blast.

A right-handed top order batter with over 25,000 career runs and 34 centuries, the 37-year-old will bring a wealth of experience and leadership, having captained the White Ferns for almost seven years and is closing in on 350 international caps since her debut in 2006.

Bates has over 10,000 runs at international level across both white ball formats and is the all-time top run scorer in Women’s T20 internationals, with a best of 124* against South Africa coming in 2018.

The New Zealander finished as her country’s joint-top run scorer in their victorious T20 World Cup campaign and became the first player to reach 1,000 T20 World Cup runs during the 2023 tournament held in South Africa.

Hailing from Otago, Bates has represented her home region since making her debut in 2003 and is closing in on 8,500 runs for the club with 10 List A centuries and a best of 183* coming against Auckland in 2006.

The New Zealander captained the Oval Invincibles to The Hundred title in 2022 as well as boasting the likes of Perth Scorchers, Birmingham Phoenix and Adelaide Strikers on her CV and was named as ICC ODI and T20l Player of the Year in 2016.

Handy with ball in hand too, Bates reinvented her bowling after suffering a shoulder injury during the 2020 Women’s Big Bash, becoming an off spinner and collected figures of 3/10 against The West Indies in 2022.

Bates has recently been named as interim captain for the White Ferns and led them to victory in their ODI series against Sri Lanka.