The future of female cricket in the Hawkesbury region looks bright following the Hawkesbury District Cricket Association’s decision to organise a girls only representative cricket team for the first time in the association’s history.
Previously girls who wanted to play cricket have been restricted to playing in a mixed competition on Saturday’s or have had to travel outside of the Hawkesbury region to find a club involved in female only cricket competitions.
It is something the Hawkesbury’s Naomi Stalenberg, who now plays for the Sydney Thunder Women’s team, had to do when she was training to become a representative player.
Not being able to play in a girls only competition is something that deters many young girls from playing the sport as “being the outlier as the only girl in a team of boys can be daunting,” says Hawkesbury Girls Cricket Coach, Chris Hicks.
Mr Hicks has firsthand knowledge of this after having watched his own 12 year old daughter, Adelaide, play for Richmond on Saturday mornings in a mixed team for the last 4 years with no other opportunities on offer in the area.
Adelaide along with 8 other girls between the ages of 10 and 13, ran at the opportunity to join the Hawkesbury girls cricket team, which came 3rd in their first Spring League before Christmas and will bowl its first ball of the Sumer Competition on Friday night.
The Hawkesbury Girls will be playing in the Sydney Thunder Girls Cricket T20 entry level competition under the Penrith Zone, coming up against teams such as the St Claire Hawkes, Springwood Cricket Club and Glenbrook Blaxland Cricket Club to name a few.
The aim of the T20 style competition which runs for seven weeks is to get girls familiar with the game and playing in a controlled, fun and friendly environment before they progress to graded U13s, U15s and U17s teams and then move into women’s grade club cricket, Women’s Big Bash League or playing for Australia.
This is just the first step in a long-term plan for girls only cricket in the Hawkesbury and comes at a time when female sport is exploding says Mr Hicks.
“Hopefully if more girls start playing cricket, one day we will be able to set up a Hawkesbury region based competition and have graded teams in each age group across the area.”
The team includes Gemma Zammit, Bree Zammit, Mackenzie Wheeler, Adelaide Hicks, Makayla Allen, Kaitlyn Jones, Sophie Mizzi, Zoe Downey, Aimee Ravot.
Visit playcricket.com.au to find more information on girls only cricket.