Girls not stumped by cricket competition

Sunday 14 October 2018

Girls playing hard ball are giving the Jersey cricket scene a run for its money in a growing initiative to encourage more women to play the sport.

The Girls’ Academy is a scheme run through the Jersey Cricket Board and is working to level the playing field for girls and women who want to play competitive cricket in the island.

Lee Meloy, Cricket Development Manager at Jersey Cricket Board, spoke to Express about the need for a pathway to get girls playing cricket at all levels.

“About two and a half years ago now, we had a very successful, very strong women’s team on the island who were performing well at European tournaments and in tournaments against Guernsey.” However, Lee explained that as there was no succession plan in place, when a number of the players retired, Jersey was left without a women’s team.

“We were left with a few good young players, but nowhere near enough to carry on competing at that level. It was a perfect opportunity for us to wipe the slate clean, start from the beginning and really try and make sure that doesn’t repeat itself. We wanted to make sure that we have a good system in place [for female players] that mirrors the pathway we have for our male participants.” 

The Academy has been going for two years now, but has been gaining momentum this year after a successful season and growing numbers. This year, over 54 girls aged seven to 17 have been attending the sessions coached by local cricketer Rose Hill and UK women’s cricket coach Pete Rutherford.

Lee said that there was a bit of work to be done to change perceptions about the sport, which is often seen as having complicated rules that can be off-putting for new players. Lee said that as a starting point, the Academy brought modified versions of the game to their schools and community outreach programmes to “create a buzz” about the sport. 

Pictured: The Girls’ Academy has seen great success this season and is looking to build on their momentum next year.

Another difficulty was the perception of women’s cricket in Jersey: “It’s never been taken that seriously as a sport on the island for girls and women so we were lagging behind in terms of netball and hockey which already had a good pathway in place and the girls could really see a future of playing that sport on the island. Whereas cricket was seen as a bit of fun, but they would take other sports more seriously.”

Lee explained that teaching girls cricket in a girls-only environment really helps their confidence and he spoke about the importance of providing the Academy players with female role models that they can look up to.

Across the season, the Academy team challenged themselves by playing eight games in the Super League against more experienced boys’ teams. They didn’t come away with any wins, but Lee said their play was really encouraging: “That was their challenge – turning up against better players and trying to play together as a team. We found that they really enjoyed themselves and they stuck together really well.”

The girls finished off the season on a high by winning against a Guernsey team 3-0. After the off-season months, the Academy will start training again in November until Christmas before the initiative relaunches in January.