GCA heartened by interest in senior women’s league

UP to 16 teams could be part of the inaugural Geelong senior women’s cricket league.

Geelong Cricket Association president Rob Vines said a host of clubs had nominated teams for the new competition, which is set to start in November.

The association will soon confirm the competing teams, start date and fixture.

It comes as women’s cricket booms across the region, with the successful recent addition of the Geelong Renegades Girls Cricket League.

“It’s still in the planning phase, and it doesn’t kick off for a while yet, but they’re working away at a lot of detailed issues around rules and regulations,” Vines said of the new women’s competition.

“In terms of how it’s looking numbers-wise, I’m very heartened by the response from clubs and I think we’ll have a viable inaugural competition. How many teams we’ll have is still being settled.”

Vines said the teams for the new league, spearheaded by women’s delegate Lisa Armstrong-Rowe, would be settled in the coming weeks.

“We’ve got to make sure that whatever teams are formed that they are viable teams and there’s enough numbers to ensure they are viable teams,” Vines said.

“You need at least half a dozen more (players) in the squad (than just a starting XI). You need to make sure the distribution of those numbers is even as well across the teams.”

The women’s league will be run by the GCA, featuring clubs from across the region, including the Bellarine Peninsula Cricket Association.

Any interested club is encouraged to join.

“We’ve had a girls’ competition, but the missing piece of the puzzle has been a senior women’s competition,” Vines said.

“The only pathway for the girls in the Barwon region was to go to Geelong and they can’t fit them all. So the missing piece of the puzzle has always been a women’s cricket comp in this region and it would be a wonderful thing.

“We were never entirely sure how strong the demand would be, but I have been really heartened by the demand that appears to be there.’’