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.
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. When all other Irish cricket is thriving, did everybody somehow forget about us? I was reading some postings on an Irish cricket website recently and some of the comments (in reply to a posting about how little the Irish women’s team gets in support) were along the lines that the men are the ones who have been successful, so that is where Cricket Ireland will obviously concentrate its efforts.
This was not a reflection on Cricket Ireland’s views of the women’s game, or on how they prioritise; it was the opinion of a few regular male club players and how they think cricket in Ireland should be prioritised.
In one way, who can blame people for making comments like this after our lacklustre performances this year? But this is amateur sport, and that means it is not supposed to be about who is winning what, it is supposed to be about promoting the game and participation in sport. When most of the other women writing blogs on Girls Aloud are praising the leaps forward that the women’s game is taking, I would say that we in Ireland are going backwards.
All of this just detracts from what we are trying to do though, and that is to compete with the teams that are one and two places ahead of us. The teams we should be trying to beat are Pakistan, West Indies and South Africa.
We are a little bit wiser going into these games than we were when we played South Africa in the ICC Trophy. We didn’t know much about their bowling attack then, and we didn’t stick to our game plan.
When it comes down to it though, all I want to do is go out there and play my best cricket, and hope that the other girls on the team will do the same. That is the attitude that we are going into these games with; everything else like support, funding and tours will just have to wait.
Posted by: Katharine Sinderson at July 30, 2008 2:57 PM
Really interesting to read the above comments as an England supporter, who has yet to see the Ireland team so I hope to get the chance soon. I guess all women's sports really have to keep fighting their corner over and over if they are not to be overlooked. Giving priority to the men seems to be a default position virtually. Good Luck. P.S. As a Middlesex supporter I have more than a little reason to be grateful to the Joyce family for our first trophy for fifteen years!
Mithali Raj, India's former captain, has been on the international circuit for a decade. In August 2006, she led India to their first-ever Test and series win in England and capped off the year by winning the Asia Cup - the second time in 12 months - without dropping a game. India, under her captaincy, also reached the World Cup final in 2005. Now, as one of the senior members of the side, and the premier batsman, a lot will be riding on her for the two World Cups - 50-over and Twenty20 - that India will play in 2009.
Urooj Mumtaz managed to juggle a course in dentistry along with captaining Pakistan. Their most recent triumph was qualifying for the World Cup next year and the 22-year old Urooj will lead a young team to Australia in hope of creating a favourable impression of the Pakistan women's team among the other sides as well as back home. A legspinner, she has a hat-trick against Zimbabwe.
Cri-zelda Brits became South Africa’s captain at the age of 23, standing in for Shandre Fritze in the home series against Pakistan in 2007. She followed this by captaining the side to a 3-0 series whitewash against the Netherlands as well as winning the first-ever Test between the two sides by 159 runs. In 2008 she scored her maiden ODI hundred and led South Africa to a spot in the World Cup after beating Pakistan in the Qualifiers final in Stellenbosch. She also coaches the Northwest women's team, based in Potchefstroom, and runs her own academy.
Shelley Nitschke combines playing for Australia and her state with working in cricket, as a school officer. A useful spinner, her batting is also worth talking about – she has developed into a handy allrounder. Her major achievements to date are winning the 2005 World Cup, taking 7 for 24 against England in Kidderminster in 2005 and being nominated for the ICC Women's Player of the Year in 2006-07. Although she has played netball, softball and basketball, cricket has always been her stand-out sport.
Ebony Rainford-Brent made history as one of eight England players to be handed a Chance to Shine coaching contract, allowing her flexibility around training. A top-order batsman, she fought back from what doctors thought was a career-killing back injury and could one day bowl again – calling her determined is an understatement. She is on the Surrey Academy and her Super 4s side is Diamonds. Proficient in basketball and athletics, she settled for playing cricket … and the drums.
Haidee Tiffen has played for New Zealand for more than ten years and is now their captain, having begun her career with Otago Under-21s before heading to Canterbury. She has played representational hockey, basketball and rugby – but cricket is her passion and won out over New Zealand junior hockey. She is particularly proud of winning the World Cup in 2000, reaching the 100-ODI milestone and being skipper. Her experience also includes playing for Sussex for two winters and she was also part of the first female academy in Lincoln. Somehow she also finds time to teach Health and PE at Hillmorton High School.
Isobel Joyce,a class bat with a steely mentality, comes from a family full of cricketers - twin sister Cecilia plays alongside her for Ireland and brother Dom for the men’s national team, while another brother, Ed, plays for England and Middlesex. Her first half-century came against a strong New Zealand attack in Dublin in 2004 and her figures of 4 for 20 helped her side beat Scotland by six wickets in the European Championship in 2001, where Ireland won all their three matches. Her 46 against Netherlands in the summer of 2007 helped to maintain her place in the World Cup qualifiers in South Africa. She was in outstanding form with both and ball during the tournament, scoring 148 runs at 37 and taking 10 wickets at an average of 7. She ran out five Pakistani players in Ireland's first match, before earning two successive Player-of-the-Match awards against Scotland and then Zimbabwe, against whom she scored 70 and took 4 for 10. She was named captain for their next series, against West Indies, after Heather Whelan pulled out because she was expecting.
Nadine George has been a regular for West Indies since her debut in 1999. She first led the side on their tour of Europe in June-July 2008, when West Indies thrashed Ireland and Netherlands while putting up a respectable performance against England. Nadine combines playing for West Indies and her national team, St.Lucia, with her day job as a Sergeant in the Police Marine Unit of the Royal St.Lucia Police Force. A left-hand batsman and wicketkeeper, Nadine says the highlights of her career are receiving an MBE at Buckingham Palace in 2005, being the first West Indies woman cricketer to score a century in a Test (in Pakistan in 2004), playing in the World Cup in South Africa (2005), and playing club cricket in Australia in 2006. Nadine also plays netball and volleyball and loves the marine environment and is passionate about diving. She is a qualified open water diver and during her working hours captains a 65 and 82 ft vessel. Her motto in life is "with hard work and dedication one can achieve".
RSS Feed
