On Wednesday, when asked whether the idea of not returning to international cricket was passing through his mind during his time, Divine said to reporters: “Completely honest? Yes. Sure.
“To be able to process through some of those things, obviously I am unfortunately not getting small, so they naturally come to mind. But for me, for me, yes, look, just excited to be here, just going to focus on each day because it comes and really enjoying with white fern.”
“I have been playing cricket for a very long time and perhaps looking forward to what I am going to do when my time comes to hang shoes,” he said. “Those opportunities are still something that really encourages me, capable of going abroad and playing in franchise cricket, but most importantly that it is to play for white fern. We have found a huge World Cup later this year, which – all is running well – hopefully I will be on it.
“Certainly the World Cup was probably the largest. I still felt as if I got a little more to give in a black shirt. So for me, I think it was an opportunity, but also with the fact that if I was done, I had a very good run.
“The last 12, 18 months have been a person in person in person, but also the White Fernce Group, the quantity of cricket we have played, obviously winning the World Cup and such things,” Divine said. “It probably felt this and for me, with the support of New Zealand cricket, family, friends, hit a little harder than I realized, I have really been lucky to be able to overcome that time.
“Something that I am really big is to have mental health and ensure that you take time, so I am really grateful to the support I have received.”
Now at the age of 35, Divine has regularly taken mental-health brakes during his later stages after his career. She missed a large part of the 2023-24 Super Smash and took an extended break during the 2021 New Zealand winter.
He referred to his latest stretch as “hibernation”, saying that he was “a little hidden”, but recently began to see his team's companions again as he watched his T20I series 1-1 and won 2–0.
Now feeling refreshed, Divine continued to encourage other players to be open about the need of time to see after their good.
“Say, talk to people,” he said. “This is probably one of the biggest things, the support I had near me and the professionals had to help me. Everyone passes through their struggles and it can look different, it can feel different for each person, but of course to reach out, it does not matter to reach out that you are an athlete, do you have a student, it doesn't matter to ensure that you are a student.”
Valkerie Baynes is a general editor, women's cricket, in Espncricinfo
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