Sophie Devine: Cricket, competition and crises

White Ferns captain Sophie Devine tells Anika about life at the top of her game and living with Type 1 diabetes.

Sophie Devine is living her childhood dream of being a professional athlete. In this episode of It's Personal, she tells Anika Moa how she manages as captain of the New Zealand women's cricket team, the White Ferns, while also living with Type 1 diabetes.

Watch the video version of the episode here

Grassroots beginnings

"Like most kiwi kids, I just would be out as soon as the sun was up, playing sport, have to go to school, come back, be playing any sort of sport I can get. I was a little psycho. Like, I just loved getting stuck into it. And from a very young age, probably a little bit too competitive. Like, I remember, I wouldn't have been older than seven or eight, and me and one of my mates had figured out pretty early playing hockey on the grass... one of us would go in where all the kids would swarm around the ball and the other one would just wait by the goal. We'd get the ball, whack it up the top, score goals. We'd be scoring 10 / 15 goals every weekend."

"Yeah, there was no other option. I was going to play sport for New Zealand. I didn't care what sport it was or whatever. That was just it. I couldn't see myself doing anything else."

Getting the call up to represent New Zealand

"I still remember it as clear as day, being at high school and getting the phone call, which, I mean, you're not supposed to have your phones in class, but stuff that. And I remember leaving and having the phone call with the coach at the time and school was a write off after that. I remember just running home, being like, shouting and hollering and stuff like that. It's an incredible honour. It's real cliche but it's honestly like the best feeling ever to have that recognition. And I would be nowhere near here if it wasn't for coaches, mum and dad, brothers and sisters, like umpires, scorers. There's so many people that have impacted me and have allowed me to end up where I am now."

"I was a little psycho" says Devine of her competitive nature

On being captain of the White Ferns

"I'd like to think I do a good job, but I think the great thing about it is there's always something to learn. You can always get better. There's always things that you feel that you can grow and evolve and develop, which I think is really exciting for me."…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details