MILDURA, or ‘Tropical North Victoria’ to some, will be able to take a bow this coming summer if the Victorian team breaks a near 20-year drought and emerges with the Women’s National Cricket League crown.
Sequestered in indoor nets over the past few months, the state side was able to break out into the sunshine up here over the past three days and reintroduce itself to outdoor cricket.
“The amazing part about being able to come up here is to get outside at this time of year and train on turf, which we don’t have back in Melbourne,” coach of the squad Andrew Christie said at Mildura West yesterday.
“This has enabled us to translate all the work we have been doing training indoors since June in a really positive way.
“We are really fortunate that Mildura West have helped us out here and the precinct has also done a load of work to get us on turf and been really accommodating. This is beautiful.
“This an important week for us. In just over three weeks or so we will be heading up to Maroochydore for some pre-season games … so this is really valuable in preparing us for those games and the start of the season at the end of September.”
Christie was thrust into the head coaching job after the shock departure of Dulip Samaweera, who quit in May last year without seeing a ball bowled in anger.
“It’s funny how fast a year goes but, 12 months on, I’m grateful for winter, we can focus on the things that matter like being prepared and performing to a really high level,” Christie said after putting up the nets.
His squad in Mildura numbered about a dozen with major stars like former Australian skipper Meg Lanning, Annabel Sutherland, Kim Garth and Georgia Wareham plying their trade in England and the coach expects little to change this coming 12-game season.
“I don’t prepare for any of the Australian players to be available, but even without them I am very optimistic, we have a great, driven group. In terms of results and performance, I am not going to shy away, we are there to win it and there’s no reason why we can’t,” said Christie, who made life even more interesting for himself by leaving Women’s Big Bash League champions the Melbourne Renegades and moving over to coach arch-rivals the Melbourne Stars for that league’s coming season.
It wasn’t all business for the women in blue during the trip as they got to conduct a leisurely training camp for enthusiastic students from Mildura South Primary School and Trinity Lutheran on Wednesday at the Mildura Sporting Precinct.
“It was brilliant,” Christie said. “The players loved the all-girls clinic. The kids also loved it. At the end of the day they were running around with pieces of paper getting signatures and taking photos and asking some really great questions like, ‘Who was your idol growing up?’ or, ‘When did you start playing club cricket?’
“It was a great opportunity for the players to connect and realise they have bigger, more important responsibilities at times – like growing the game of cricket.”
