"Bert does not work without Ernie," Suzie Bates says before bursting into laughter.
You have to wind the clock back more than 20 years to understand the depth of that quip.
Katey Martin made her debut for the Otago Sparks in 2002 and Bates showed up the following year.
But their cricket "marriage" started when they were at school.
They have spent more than half their lives playing together. It has been an unbreakable bond.
Cricket is a game packed with a lot of failure and the occasional success.
You need a good friend to lean on when the disappointments stack up. And they have always had each other.
Old friendships can look and sound like a marriage of sorts. Commentator Scotty Stevenson picked up on that point and nicknamed them Bert and Ernie.
It is a source of great humour but also pride.
Neither can imagine playing for the Otago Sparks without the other.
"We’ve played so much cricket together, we feel like we can’t play without each other," Bates (34) said.
"So if I’m still playing, Marty still has to play. That’s the pact I’ve agreed to and I still feel like I’ve got a few more years in me. She might have to hang on."
Martin, who turned 37 in February, had indicated this would be her last season for the Sparks.
Whatever happens, they are both determined to enjoy what remains of their careers.
"I’m still loving it and still going out there with a smile on my face," Martin said.
"And, in all seriousness, it has been great to have someone to lean on.
"Suzie and I have a wee routine where she throws the ball to me a few times to warm up her shoulder and to warm up my catching when we first get out on to the field.
"It would be a pretty sad moment if Suzie didn’t have that for her, so I guess I’ll stick around for as long as my mate wants me."
Martin had "always just been there", Bates said.
"I call her my banker. I’m not very reliable — she is always there to go for coffee when you need to and, if you are struggling a little bit, or if you just want some quiet times or just go out for dinner, you’ve just got your best pal there.
"You just get so used to having that person there. And cricketing touring life, especially bubble life, is not as much fun as it may look. So I guess it is like a cricket marriage.
"She lives in Christchurch so the distance is a bit tough. Bert does not work without Ernie."
Like all good marriages, though, it involves some compromise.
"She is quite high maintenance, to be fair," Martin joked.
"As long as you are proactive in meeting her needs — like knowing what time I need to be in the cafe to make her coffee.
"The only issue I have with that is she changes her mind daily on what type of milk she wants."
Bates retorts: "It is hard to slate her when she does provide the coffee because I’ll have no coffee tomorrow.
"She is going to shoot me for this but she is incredibly messy and that is why an actual marriage wouldn’t work.
"I’m a bit of a neat freak ... and Marty likes to live chaos."
Bates, and her attention to detail, and Martin, and her flair, will team up again in a monster year of cricket for the White Ferns.
The first major assignment is the World Cup, which starts in New Zealand tomorrow.
There is the Commonwealth Games in England in July and August to look forward to as well, and the women's T20 World Cup in South Africa in February 2023.
The White Ferns appeared to be building nicely for the World Cup. They beat India in a five-game ODI series in Queenstown, and on Tuesday had an extraordinary nine-wicket win over Australia, chasing down 322.
"I think it just shows the depth that we are starting to get in this team," Bates said.
"We haven’t been able to put our best team out on the park consistently with people taking breaks, so it feels like we are starting to get some rhythm.
"But we are not getting too ahead of ourselves because we understand the World Cup will be a different challenge."
Martin said the key was "making sure we continue to bat with confidence which has been hard to do at times".
"We’re probably a bit more of an understated side. But whether people are talking about us or not, we know what we can do."
