Dawn of a new era for female cricketers

A new era of cricket in Albany will dawn tonight with the inaugural Sunset Scorchers women’s competition.

A popular brand of cricket played among metropolitan clubs, Sunset Scorchers is a shortened format of the game which runs for about an hour.

The players use soft equipment and there is no experience required.

WA Cricket Association Great Southern manager Tim Edmunds said 60 people had already registered for tonight’s social female competition.

“It is quick, exciting and provides women and girls of different levels of ability, experience and age a supportive environment to play cricket while being physically active,” he said.

“We had close to 30 come along to our come and try the event last month and since then the interest has boomed as they clearly enjoyed themselves. We have hockey players, netballers, footy players and women from all sporting backgrounds taking to the field, which is great.”

Edmunds said he hoped tonight’s event at the North Road cricket grounds would lead to a strong female cricket presence in the Great Southern.

“Hopefully this competition is around for many years to come but it is a great starting point to hopefully develop a sustainable club-based women’s competition and girls under-18 league,” he said. “Girls want to play together and this definitely shows. There is the Girls Country Cricket Carnival for girls aged 11-16 in January and we take a team from this region every season so there is an increasing amount of opportunities.

“It really is cricket like you’ve never seen it before which appeals to all lifestyles as a social cricket program and utilises our great facilities including the lights here in Albany.”