South Wilts’ exciting girls’ cricket initiative has received another boost from England’s World Cup winning captain.
When Heather Knight came to Salisbury last autumn to hand out the awards at the girls’ presentation dinner she expressed a wish to come back to the city to see for herself what progress South Wilts were making.
And she can hardly have been more delighted when she donned her ECB tracksuit to lead a full-scale coaching session at the Tollgate Indoor Cricket Centre.
“I could see immediately a lot of good things going on,” she said.
“From small beginnings South Wilts have a really thriving girls’ youth section.
“They’ve attracted 55 girls between ages of eight and 15 years, all playing in four different age group teams every week throughout the summer, with quite a number of them already selected for Wiltshire.”
The England women’s captain, who led a nerve jangling nine-run win over India in last July’s World Cup final at Lord’s, added that the take off of girls’ cricket at South Wilts was just the spin off the ECB wanted following last summer’s triumph.
“Winning the World Cup last summer was a real fillip for women’s cricket across the country and has been a real turning point in the development of the game,” she said.
“The promotion of the game in the Salisbury area is just what we need and I know Nigel Sell and Jason Reeve have worked incredibly hard on building this section.
“The girls will have a lot of fun playing cricket and I look forward to hearing a lot more positives about how things are developing.”
* South Wilts’ girls train with qualified coaches at the Tollgate Centre on Monday evenings from 5.15pm onwards and newcomers are welcome to attend.
When Heather Knight came to Salisbury last autumn to hand out the awards at the girls’ presentation dinner she expressed a wish to come back to the city to see for herself what progress South Wilts were making.
And she can hardly have been more delighted when she donned her ECB tracksuit to lead a full-scale coaching session at the Tollgate Indoor Cricket Centre.
“I could see immediately a lot of good things going on,” she said.
“From small beginnings South Wilts have a really thriving girls’ youth section.
“They’ve attracted 55 girls between ages of eight and 15 years, all playing in four different age group teams every week throughout the summer, with quite a number of them already selected for Wiltshire.”
The England women’s captain, who led a nerve jangling nine-run win over India in last July’s World Cup final at Lord’s, added that the take off of girls’ cricket at South Wilts was just the spin off the ECB wanted following last summer’s triumph.
“Winning the World Cup last summer was a real fillip for women’s cricket across the country and has been a real turning point in the development of the game,” she said.
“The promotion of the game in the Salisbury area is just what we need and I know Nigel Sell and Jason Reeve have worked incredibly hard on building this section.
“The girls will have a lot of fun playing cricket and I look forward to hearing a lot more positives about how things are developing.”
* South Wilts’ girls train with qualified coaches at the Tollgate Centre on Monday evenings from 5.15pm onwards and newcomers are welcome to attend.
