Westman Cricket Association starting women’s development league

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This article was published 07/06/2022 (1186 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After coaching the Crocus Plains women’s cricket team in their first appearance at a high school competition over the weekend in Winnipeg, Jeanine Allers is looking to grow female involvement in the sport.

Allers — who lives in Rivers — is involved with the Westman Cricket Association’s new women’s development league, which will take place on Mondays this summer at Simplot Millennium Park.

“We have the 11 girls who played with the Crocus team that are interested in pursuing the sport further, but I think there are a lot more people that want to try cricket as we’re starting to get the word out there,” Allers said. “Our goal is to get multiple teams in the area so that we can have local matches against each other and hopefully other towns will start to get a good number of girls coming out to play, especially in Winnipeg where they have the population base.

“There are female squads in the other western Canada provinces and were seeing it slowly make its way over to Manitoba.”

The team at Crocus was formed this year as it was discovered that there were enough players to form an all-female squad.

Allers — who is a former player and coached for a time in Winnipeg — came in to serve as a coach for the program, which featured a majority of the students that were trying the sport for the first time.

“The entire team was amazing,” Allers said. “They all realized that if they wanted to have the chance to play in any competition … they would have to develop their skills really fast.

“They went from practising with a tennis ball, to an indoor ball and to a hard ball in a short amount of time. They worked extremely hard so that they could be ready for Winnipeg.”

When they arrived at Assiniboine Park on Saturday for the Manitoba Cricket Association High School Jamboree, the other participants immediately welcomed the Crocus team.

“Everyone was super encouraging to the girls, especially as they knew that this was their first time there,” Allers said.

“We’re hoping that by being there and getting that exposure, it will encourage more girls to try out for their high school programs and maybe we’ll have more female teams to play against in the future.”

The exact start date for the women’s development league has yet to be determined, as the WCA is waiting for equipment to arrive, but Allers is ready to get things started.

“It’s going to be pretty busy in general at Simplot Park,” she added. “I think the pitch is booked through the entire summer, which is impressive seeing that it just got finished last year.

“I think that’s a real sign of how much the sport is growing here and it’s only going to get bigger in the years to come.

“We have the funding in place and the space at Simplot, which is going to be busy all summer long to begin.”

Those who are interested in taking part can visit the WCA’s Facebook page or email westmancricketassociation@gmail.com for more information.

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