New Delhi [India], September 18 : New Zealand veteran Suzie Bates is hoping a pre-tournament camp in Dubai will allow her side to adapt quickly to the difficult conditions expected at the upcoming ICC Women's Cricket World Cup, as per the official website of ICC.
New Zealand landed in Dubai earlier this week to prepare for the 13th edition of the 50-over World Cup, with the team set to battle the hot and humid conditions that will confront them when they take on England in a pair of unofficial warm-up matches for the eagerly-awaited tournament that commences in India and Sri Lanka on September 30.
The return to Dubai holds special memories for New Zealand as it was where the team won their first ICC Women's T20 World Cup title last year and Bates said it evoked a host of feelings for her and her teammates upon landing in the thriving city.
"We have loved coming back here after almost 12 months," Bates told ICC Digital, as quoted from the official website of ICC.
"Reminiscing on those last 12 months and that really special time for a lot of this group," she added.
"There's a few new faces here now, so we've joked about if we win this World Cup, maybe we'll have to come back to Dubai and celebrate," she said.
For Bates, this World Cup will be the fifth time she has appeared at the tournament with the now 38-year-old having made her debut at the ninth edition of the event back in Australia in 2009 after also flirting with a career in professional basketball having represented New Zealand at the 2008 Olympics.
But having made the wise choice to represent the White Ferns on a full-time basis, Bates is now one of five players - alongside teammate Sophie Devine, Australia's Ellyse Perry, South Africa's Marizanne Kapp and India's Harmanpreet Kaur - that will be playing at a fifth straight world Cup when this year's tournament commences later this month.
"These events are the pinnacle for me," Bates said, as quoted from the official website of ICC.
"I feel like each World Cup was a different phase of my career, coming on so naive to the first one in 2009 as an 18 or 19-year-old and not really knowing what to expect at a World Cup, to now the game having evolved so much and every team coming, believing they can win the tournament and putting together really competitive sides," she added.
"The promotion of the game is now fully professional, but it was very amateur back in 2009. I've been captain, I've been not captain, and it has brought a different challenge," she noted.
"They all kind of merged together and you sort of look back and you can't quite believe how quickly it's gone. But this one is going to be one of the most competitive ones I think I've played at," she said.
While Bates knows much of the Kiwis' fortunes will rest with her and Devine, she knows how good the next generation of New Zealand players are and believes they can deliver in the same way they did when they won the T20 World Cup title in Dubai last year.
"We have got some new faces, but some of our players that have been around the group for a long time," Bates said, as quoted from the official website of ICC.
"Eden Carson was outstanding at the 20-over (T20) World Cup and she's such a young player still, Georgia Plimmer had a really great tournament and led from the front with the bat and we've got a really exciting prospect with left-armer Bree Illing," she noted.
"We haven't had a left-arm seamer in the New Zealand side since Sian Ruck and that was a long time ago. So it's going to be exciting to see her let the ball fly and swing the ball. And we've also got a very talented all-rounder in Flora Devonshire," she added.
"Even though I've had five (World Cups), I'm just as excited for their first one and hopefully they just embrace it all and I can share a little bit of knowledge about World Cups with them," she said.
New Zealand squad: Sophie Devine (c), Suzie Bates, Eden Carson, Flora Devonshire, Izzy Gaze, Maddy Green, Brooke Halliday, Bree Illing, Polly Inglis, Bella James, Melie Kerr, Jess Kerr, Rosemary Mair, Georgia Plimmer, Lea Tahuhu.