Ex-Australia captain passes on knowledge
Former Aust captain full of praise
CRICKET: Toowoomba cricketing royalty returned to the Garden City yesterday to put some of Queensland’s brightest young stars through their paces.
The former Southern Stars captain was a special guest alongside Queensland Fire bowler Georgia Prestwidge at the Queensland Cricket Pathway Academy camp.
More than 30 of the state’s up and coming female players took to the fields at Toowoomba Grammar School, engaging in training skills and drills and matches.
“It’s amazing now, just the opportunities for these young girls,” Fields said.
“The pathway has really come along particularly in the past five to 10 years. When I was here playing with the boys here it was just me to be honest.
“I loved playing with the boys but at the same time it’s so good to see 36 of these girls able to play with their mates, learn from each other, build those friendships and learn about the game.”
Fields came through the ranks of Toowoomba Cricket, going on to represent Australia at Test, one-day and Twenty20 level, also becoming the first Qld player to captain Australia.
She said events such as this helped give the girls a great insight into the professional game.
“These academy camps are great, particularly for the rural players,” she said.
“A lot of the girls have travelled long distances to get here to be involved.
“For them to learn about how to be an elite cricketer is great and hopefully they learn a lot while they’re here.
“There’s been so many great coaches here over the past couple of days that they can learn from and improve their games.
“With the WBBL tournament it has really created that pathway to get to the highest level in Twenty20 cricket,” she said.
“That’s been a massive step forward for women’s cricket and also just the number of people now that are getting involved.
“Coming through at this age some of my idols were Michael Bevan and Adam Gilchrist because they were on TV at the time.
“Now these girls can watch Alyssa Healey and Sophie Molineux.
“There’s a couple of new people like Georgia Wareham, they’re still young players but have got their chance at the Australian level and it’s amazing for these girls to see it and want to be like that.”