Girls Aloud
Our confidence is riding high
Ebony Rainford-Brent
25-Feb-2013
The South Africans have arrived ready for the one-day series. I haven't seen them much, but I know they played England A in a Twenty20 yesterday. It was a close game and they put up a good contest - and they're just warming up, having just got here.
We don't know too much about them – we haven't really got any footage of the bowlers - but we are feeling very confident. We should do, we're playing a lot of good cricket and having a lot of international success at the moment and I see no reason why we shouldn't continue that and do what we need to do and keep our standards up.
Full postTouching base in England
It has been a hectic few days for the members of the South African team
Cri-Zelda Brits
25-Feb-2013
It has been a hectic few days for the members of the South African team. We had to leave for England immediately after the inaugural Twenty20 Super Fours domestic competition over the weekend. The team is geared up for the first match of the tour, an ODI against Ireland in Crowthorne on Thursday, which will be followed by a Twenty20 international the next day.
The Super Fours was a great experience and showed that there is some strength and depth for women’s cricket in South Africa. It is something that I am certain Cricket South Africa will look to repeat in the future, both for Twenty20 and 50-over cricket.
Back to the series, there hasn’t been much time to acclimatise to local conditions. The matches against Ireland, whom we had defeated to qualify for the World Cup, will offer invaluable practice time ahead of some of the tougher challenges that lie ahead for us on the tour. We are also aware that Ireland’s side will have some different faces to the team that played us in Stellenbosch, but to be honest our main focus is just on our game.
We know the things that we need to work on in the build-up to the World Cup and this tour will show us what we need to compete against the very best in the world.
Full postTwenty20 - ladies style
The tournament has given us a good idea of who the best Twenty20 players are in the country and I am sure that will influence the thinking of the selectors when they meet to decide who will be in our training camp squads ahead of the series against
Urooj Mumtaz
25-Feb-2013
While Twenty20 cricket has taken off across the world, we got our first taste of a domestic Twenty20 competition last week with the inaugural Quadrangular Twenty20 event.
The tournament saw four teams play six matches each with the top sides after the pool stages qualifying for the final.
The top 64 players in the country were split into four different regions, including North Zone (Peshawar, Abbottabad, Islamabad) Central Zone-Blues (Lahore, Sialkot) Central Zone-Greens (Multan, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi) and South Zone (Karachi, Hyderabad, Quetta).
Full postWhy women's cricket is going backwards in Ireland
It feels like Irish women’s cricket is coming to the end of an era, and I have to say, I don’t know where we go from here
Isobel Joyce
25-Feb-2013
Another series ... well I suppose you can hardly call one Twenty20 and a one-day international a series, but for lack of a better word, another coach - this time it is stand-in coach South African Albert Van der Merwe. Our previous stop-gap coach, Matt Dwyer, has other commitments so he couldn’t stay with us after the West Indies games.
Since those matches, there has been a lot of club cricket being played, and we seem to be getting into the swing of things just when the summer is winding down. I would be lying if I said that the preparation for the South Africa games was ideal, but the girls have been training hard, and are taking an optimistic approach to the upcoming tour.
Full postA team to contend with
It feels really amazing to be back in the fold again after taking the gamble last summer to leave out my bowling so as not to risk further serious injury
Ebony Rainford-Brent
25-Feb-2013
It feels really amazing to be back in the fold again after taking the gamble last summer to leave out my bowling so as not to risk further serious injury. I worked really hard in the winter; having obviously missed out on the Australia tour, I needed to put in some good batting performances in the domestic competitions. I now only have one discipline so getting in the line-up will be harder – you have to make it count when you get your opportunity and especially if you're a batsman, you only get one chance.
That's no words to describe what it means to play for England, but when I got the phone call to say I was in the summer squad, I did have a little cry – for about 20 seconds, before I thought "pull yourself together".Since my last blog I've played a few Super Fours matches, finishing off one with 133 in a big stand with Lottie. It's just nice to be feeling in good form.
On top of that, I got involved in the Cricathlon on CricketAM, which is a competition to sprint with all the pads on, throw a stump like a javelin and a standing high jump. Without blowing my own trumpet, I cleaned up. It was good fun, good to get the women on TV as well.
Full postProud to be Kiwi
New Zealand has a very small population of four million people
Haidee Tiffen
25-Feb-2013
The White Ferns have just finished their second winter camp and boy is it winter. Lincoln in the summer can be freezing at the best of times, and our touring teams will vouch for that, but this past weekend we were treated to snow. For some of the North Island girls it was the first time they had actually seen snow falling! As you can imagine, it was very exciting and naturally the morning run was cancelled and the girls decided to make snowmen instead.
The camp was full of cricket, more cricket, guests and fun. The highlight of the camp would have to been the Ready Steady Cook challenge. It involved everyone being split into three teams and getting a list of ingredients to create their master piece. One group, that I was proud not to be a part of, suffered a series of unfortunate events which led to their main meal tasting like cat food. The other two teams actually made edible food. Steve Jenkin was the only brave soul to eat the cat food meal which for interest's sake consisted of a tuna, asparagus, baked beans and avocado wrap, with a stuffed potato consisting of those ingredients all over again. Hmm, not ideal!
Full postPassive mentality has to change
We are used to things happening quite slowly in the world of women's cricket, and the common response to a small improvement is often, “Well, at least it's something”
Shelley Nitschke
25-Feb-2013
Well as Ebony said, it is a very exciting time for women's cricket. This week's announcement by Cricket Australia of contracts for the Australian women is timely considering the relatively busy playing schedule coming up for the 2008-09 season.
With such a schedule coming up, some may've found it difficult to juggle their employment with their playing commitments. In the past, our ever increasing playing schedule has put pressure on employers, and unfortunately some girls have had to forego their casual positions due to cricket commitments. Looking from the perspective of the employers, it does put them in a difficult position at times.
Although the Cricket Australia contracts won't exactly allow us to resign from our employment roles, they will help alleviate some of these pressures. I guess I have been very lucky in regard to this, working at the South Australian Cricket Association.
Full postPositives gained despite setbacks
Though it might look like there are too many positives for Ireland to take from this series, that is not the case
Isobel Joyce
25-Feb-2013
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Our first match on June 24 started late due to rain, but only eight overs were lost. Nadine George won the toss and, after a short conference with coach Sherwin Campbell, decided to bowl first. It was a day for bowling, and Ireland’s batting started very slowly. Wickets fell at regular intervals, and apart from Nicki Coffey, who scored 32, the performance was below-par.
Ireland were bowled out for 123, but we knew we were still in with a shout of winning the game. Once I and the other opening bowler, Marianne Herbert, became aware of just how much the ball was swinging, the West Indies top order struggled. Though they were scoring quickly, wickets were also falling regularly. At 32 for 4 from just 8.1 overs, the rain came to save the batting side. By the time we got back we had lost a lot of time. The second innings was reduced to 20 overs, which meant that the two opening bowlers had bowled all of their overs.
Next to bowl were debutants Melissa Scott Hayward and Amy Kenealy. Both struggled in their first overs because of the combined difficulty of the weather and the left and right batting combination. We knew we needed to get an early wicket, and two chances came. One was a catch at long-off, and the other a run out opportunity. Neither chance was taken and West Indies made us pay. They pushed the good balls for singles, and almost every bad ball went for four. Ultimately, that was the difference between the two teams.
Full postBoards must try to offer contracts to women
It’s important for women’s cricket that all countries, where possible, move towards offering contracts
Ebony Rainford-Brent
25-Feb-2013
What an exciting time for the sport, with the World Twenty20 announcement – and for England women in particular. Having had our most successful tour of Australia and New Zealand ever we came into the new season all abuzz, especially when the eight contracts were announced and I was lucky to get one of them. They’ve been designed to allow us to be able to both play cricket at international level and also be able to give back to women’s cricket through Chance to Shine to try to increase girls’ participation.
My typical week involves going into schools and clubs three days a week and trying to get in around 25 hours’ a week of coaching time. That’s fitted around my training, so I will still get to do my England training commitments and Surrey Academy and play all games. I’m enjoying it so far. Initially I found it testing because it was seven days a week between training and playing but luckily I’ve been able to rejig it to cut down on travelling time – flexibility I wouldn’t have in most other jobs.
Full postLeading the side against the unfamilar Windies
When players retire, or leave the game for a while, there are always those ready to take their places
Isobel Joyce
25-Feb-2013
The build up to the next World Cup Qualifiers starts here as far as Ireland is concerned. We were very disappointed not to do better in South Africa last February, but that is in the past, and all that matters now is the ODI series against the West Indies which starts tomorrow.
There have been a few changes to the squad since the ICC Trophy – Beggsie (Caitriona Beggs) and Lenny (Anne Linehan) retired at the end of the tournament, Elaine Nolan started her world travels from South Africa, Jill Whelan is also taking time out to travel, and captain Heather Whelan has stepped back from the game for a year.
A complete change is going on behind the scenes too. Our coach Miriam Grealey has retired after two years of hard work, as has our manager Sandra Dawson. However, we are very excited to have Matt Dwyer taking us for the upcoming series. A former international himself, Matt has a knowledge of the game that few can boast. We just hope he goes easier on us than he does on his son Mark!
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