Danni’s determined after Djokovic meet
DANNI Wyatt has got used to playing in front of record crowds in the Women’s Big Bash League but even she was a little star-struck at meeting tennis superstar Novak Djokovic.
The England all-rounder is currently one of the ten leading run-getters in this year’s WBBL in her second season with the Melbourne Renegades and has been joined in Australia by dad Steve.
And the duo enjoyed breakfast with tennis world number two Djokovic as he prepares to defend his Australian Open crown next week.
She explained: “We met Novak Djokovic with my dad at breakfast. He was sat next to me and I was in my training kit so he kept looking at me, probably thinking I was a tennis player.
“We ended up talking and I explained that I was a cricketer. He didn’t talk too much about cricket, so I don’t think he knows a huge amount about it. I was pretty star-struck, even as someone who doesn’t follow tennis that much. I’ll probably go along to the Australian Open next week.”
Before then the 25-year-old will look to build on a strong start to 2017 with the Renegades.
The Melbourne-outift are unbeaten in the New Year after a slow start to their Big Bash campaign before Christmas.
Their early struggles mean there is still everything to do to make the knock-out stages, but Wyatt is determined to extend her stay as long as possible.
She added: “We’ve only got four games left until the end of the group stages. We’re unbeaten in 2017 but we are still bottom at the moment.
“Hopefully if we can win our last four games, and other results go our way, we can still make it to the semifinals.
“Even though I played last year I was still a little nervous here to begin with, there’s always extra pressure when you’re the overseas player. But it’s gone well and I’m in the top ten leading run-scorers at the moment.
“This will be my last cricket for a little while, when I go back there will be a five-week break before we start training camps with England Loughborough.
“It’s been great being in Melbourne, it’s my favourite city but the time goes so fast here.
“But when I’m back we’ll be preparing for the World Cup. It would be an absolute dream come true to play a World Cup on home soil.
“We’re expecting a lot of big crowds so to be able to play in front of them would be an absolute dream.” in