Sophie Devine stopped kindly for her fans.She smiled into the selfie camera. She engaged for a while with the cricket fans, who had assembled in large numbers on that warm Sunday afternoon at Lord’s for the Women’s T20 World Cup match between India and Australia.Devine’s World Cup had been over by then: New Zealand had been knocked out of the Women’s T20 World Cup.She had announced that she would be quitting international cricket after the World Cup. Suzie Bates and Lea Tahuhu, who along with Devine were the members of the New Zealand that won the last T20 World Cup in UAE two years ago, had also played their last matches for White Ferns.It was as if these magnificent women, who between them played 894 games for New Zealand, were making the opening statement for what would be a summer of farewells in cricket. Their countryman Kane Williamson ended his international career during the Test series in England, which overlapped with the Women’s World Cup. And there were more to follow: Ben Stokes, Heather Knight, Tammy Beaumont.Rarely has cricket seen so many stars leaving the stage within a space of so little time. We also saw the curtain coming down on two high-profile coaching stints: of Brendon McCullum and Stephen Fleming. As if all that wasn’t enough, Garry Sobers, cricket’s greatest all-rounder of all time, bid an even more poignant farewell.