Back in ‘game I love’

Former coach returns

A DESIRE to grow and develop women’s cricket has led to Janet Argoon’s return to the sport as Cricket Far North’s vice-president.

Argoon and husband Steve retired in 2019 but she has found her way back to he sport that has given her life so much.

Before she retired, Argoon served as a junior coaching director for female cricket, a role that helped identify and provide pathways for talented girls. And she said the region, which boasts just four senior women’s teams, needed to further the junior base to strengthen the game.

“Far North clubs need to actively have a junior female base,” Argoon said.

“We need junior competitions, every senior club needs a women’s team as well.

“Everyone who plays either has a mum, a sister, an aunty or a girlfriend or wife who probably didn’t get involved when they were younger because no one asked. We need to ask. And we need more visibility of the WBBL and our successful Australian women’s team.”

That observation was built from personal experience.

When Argoon was eight, she wanted to play cricket but signed up for Vigoro because cricket was not available.

She got her first chance to play in a women’s team when indoor cricket started in Cairns in the early 1980s and has been involved since. Her then to-be husband Steve convinced her to put on the whites and play an outdoor game for Mulgrave Cricket Club. In 2018, The Lacey Bra Cup was invented by Trish Spry – and women’s cricket had officially hit Cairns.

Argoon played her first outdoor game of women’s cricket.

“I was 56 when I played my first game of cricket,” she said.

“It was awesome to see how far we had come and how much effort Trish (Spry) had done to get this competition up and running.”

Argoon’s sons played cricket, and in 2011, she got her first opportunity to coach when her youngest boy’s under-11s coach left halfway through the season. “That helped me realise how much of a passion I had for cricket,” Argoon said.

“I coached boys’ cricket teams until we retired in 2019.

“Being the first ever female to coach at Queensland Junior Cricket Championships with my Cricket Far North under-13 team was probably the proudest I have felt on a personal level.”

In 2019, Argoon was back in the cricket community after a couple of years off after she and Steve retired.

“There are definitely more females taking on roles within Cricket Far North,” Argoon said. “Not just as treasurer or secretary roles, either.

“One of the greatest feelings is seeing juniors who I have coached playing first, second, third or fourth grade and even women’s.

“To know that I have helped them with the love of the game makes me really happy.”