With an expected recovery time of eight to 12 weeks, Devine is hoping to be fit for the WBBL, which is yet to finalise its overseas player recruitment model despite the season starting on October 29. She has played in all 11 WBBL seasons: the first five for Adelaide Strikers, and the most recent six for Perth Scorchers.

“It’s pretty frustrating,” Devine told Cricinfo of her injury setback. “Everyone knows injuries are part of sports and I’ve been pretty lucky to – there’s no point touching wood now – but to have not had too many bad ones. But I’ve done a fair job of the calf, tearing at a decent grade, 3C, so [I’m] looking at a pretty lengthy rehab recovery for that.

“It is a decent rehab. [I’m] looking at between eight to 12 weeks, so targeting Big Bash is the next thing for me, which is a really good goal, making sure that I get this right.

“I’ve been told by a number of people – both medical professionals and not – that this is an older-person injury, so I really want to make sure that I get this right and that it doesn’t keep popping up. But that’s a really good target for me, to have an opportunity to go back to basics and get this body right and hopefully go around for another couple more years.”

Devine, 36, has stayed with her Welsh Fire team, having joined from Birmingham Phoenix as the joint-highest earner at the inaugural player auction, alongside Beth Mooney, who went to table-topping Trent Rockets for £210,000.

Just two players, Sarah Bryce and Georgia Davis, remain from Welsh Fire’s squad which finished bottom in 2025 and Devine sees plenty of potential for the future.

“When we were good, we were very good and when we were poor, we were very poor,” was her assessment of the 2026 season. “That isn’t through a lack of skill or anything like that, because we saw glimpses throughout this competition of how good we could be. For us, it was just our lack of ability to back it up and to have consistent performances.

“It’s disappointing for us. We know that the depth that we’ve got in this side and the quality of players that we’ve got throughout, we certainly were hoping for a bit better this tournament, but hopefully if we can keep the core group together and start to really build something, I’m really excited about hopefully having some success in the next couple of years.”

“Sophia Smale for me has been incredible,” Devine said. “Left-arm orthodox spinners, I don’t know what it is in the women’s game, but they just seem to have this magic touch and I think she’s been super effective.

“Grace Potts, I can’t believe some of the spells that she’s bowled in this competition, sometimes bowling 15, 20 balls out of a 25-ball powerplay. That’s both incredible from a fitness and endurance point of view, but also her ability to keep going at batters.

“Grace Thompson as well is a young talent there. I see similarities with Cam Green from Australia, obviously got a bit of height about her and has got a beautiful technique with the bat. [There’s some] really exciting stuff there and around the competition. I could talk for days about the talent that’s popping up.”

They were a big part of Devine wanting to remain with the Fire, even as Australian allrounder Georgia Wareham took over the captaincy for the remainder of the season.

“I’m really grateful to the Welsh Fire for letting me stay on board and just to be around this group,” Devine said. “I’ve absolutely loved my time. I would have loved to have been out on the park with them.

“We’ve got a reasonably young group and especially a very different group to what we’ve had last year, or the last couple of years, so I thought it was really important to be here… Also, to offer support to Georgia Wareham, who I think has done an incredible job stepping into that captaincy space.

“Welsh Fire have been fantastic and it was sort of a no-brainer for me to want to stay around. Unfortunately, we couldn’t kick on a bit further in the tournament, but I know that this group’s got some really promising signs.”

Devine was speaking in support of KP Snacks’ Everyone In Fund, which supports the ECB’s Cricket Cities programme to remove barriers and create opportunities for participation.

KP Snacks, Official Partner of The Hundred, have launched the Everyone In Fund, in support of the ECB’s Cricket Cities programme. To find out more, visit everyonein.co.uk