I have grown not only as a cricketer but as a person as well, says Jess Watkin

“I have grown not only as a cricketer but as a person as well,” she told NZ Sports Wire. “I just need to not rely on anyone else, focus on myself and get myself to where I want to be.”
“If I have a moment where I really need to get away from it, if I am really nervous, I will just think of the place where everything means the most to me and switch back on.”
Watkin, who made her international debut as a 20-year-old in 2018, talked about how she felt when she was dropped from the New Zealand side even though she saw it coming.
“I kind of saw it coming due to my performances. Playing for the White Ferns has been a dream and then to have it taken away from me was pretty heartbreaking.”
The 22-year-old says she used to be hard on herself for her batting failures, but with time she has learnt to be positive. She talked about the time she struggled even to hold the bat during the 2018 tour of Australia.
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“Not only were we not performing, but I wasn’t performing and I just kept getting pegged down and down. I am a player who struggles to deal with not succeeding, like if I get out for a duck, then I’m pretty hard on myself,” Watkin said.
“I couldn’t hold the bat; I was shaking that much. I just felt this massive pressure that I had to perform every single game and I didn’t deal (with it) too well.”
Watkin, who has played 15 internationals for New Zealand, says the team culture at her domestic side Central Hinds also helped her to progress as a person and as a player.
“We have a team culture that anyone can speak up, so I think it’s really cool that we’ve built that up over the last few years.”
Watkin and her teammates at Central Hinds are hosting a charity ’24-hour slog’ to create awareness about mental health and are hoping to raise $4000 for the Mental Health Foundation.
“There has to be at least one of us running at all times, for the whole 24 hours and every 100 laps we will do a challenge.” she concluded.
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