About 100 girls attended an inter-school T20 Blast competition on Tuesday, and management developer at Central West Matt Tabbenor said he was excited by the prospect of getting another Thunder Girls Cricket League (TGCL) running in Orange.
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“Last year we had 4 teams in the TGCL U17 leage, this year we’re hoping to start an under 13s league to go with it so we get 8-12 teams across the two leagues,” he said.
Run by the Sydney Thunder Big Bash side, the TGCL aims to get more girls involved in cricket, which former Australian batter Michelle Goszko says is hugely important to girls’ cricket.
“Having girl’s cricket become more popular is important, as it lets you play at your level instead of playing against older girls,” she said.
Goszko played for Australia for over 10 years, which included a world cup triumph in India in 1997.
She now has a role with Sydney Thunder co-ordinating female participation.
“There’s so much more participation out here. The kids have more space and more time to play, they’re often more naturally athletic.”
She said women’s cricket was becoming more popular now that women were being paid a living wage.
Sydney Thunder off-spinner Samantha Bates, who spoke to the girls on Tuesday, said cricket had “come so far” in the past few years.
“Most of the time it’s a boy’s competition with a few girls around so it’s fantastic to see an all girls competition running,” she said.