New Zealand beat South Africa in the final of the Women’s T20 World Cup on Sunday, as the Kiwis beat the Proteas by 32 runs to win a contest between two teams seeking to win their maiden T20 WC title across both men’s and women’s tournaments.
In what was captain Sophie Devine’s final tournament as the captain of the New Zealand WT20I team, the Kiwis pulled off big wins against India, West Indies, and South Africa to lift the trophy in Dubai. A player-of-the-tournament performance by Amelia Kerr was capped with a match-winning performance in the final.
Later, in the trophy celebrations, cameras captured skipper Devine recreating an iconic moment in music history as she prepared to take to the stage along with her teammates and lift the trophy.
In a video shared by ICC’s social media channels, Devine can be seen walking towards the stage, before turning back towards a camera and saying the words “I guess we’ll never know,” with a confident shrug.
This comment is a reference to an iconic moment in which American hip-hop star Kanye West won his first rap album of the year award at the 2005 Grammy Awards, for his debut album ‘The College Dropout’. In what is now a famous internet clip, Kanye in his acceptance speech said “Everybody wanted to know what I would do if I didn’t win,” before taking a brief pause, raising his award, and saying the famous words: “I guess we’ll never know.”
The moment has become an iconic moment in pop culture history, and has been replicated in sporting arenas in years ever since. Earlier in 2024, Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum also repeated the iconic phrase during title celebrations, after helping his teams to winning the NBA finals.
Later, Swedish gold-medal winning pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis, one of the most popular athletes at the Paris Olympics, also replicated the moment with a voiceover for his social media accounts.
Devine finishes captaincy tenure on a high
Devine, who has spent 18 years as as New Zealand international, will relinquish captaincy of New Zealand following this tournament, a role she had taken over in 2019.
Although she is widely considered one of the finest captains in the sport, she cited wanting to reduce her workload as one of the reasons, although she will continue to participate in the format. She will remain captain in ODIs as the run-in to the 2025 ODI World Cup in India begins.
