Leigh's Blog - Arrival, Training, and New South Wales.
Scotland and Carlton all-rounder Leigh Kasperek has been making an impact for Australia state outfit, Western Fury recently and has sent us a blog with a few of her experiences down under.
It’s been nearly 4 months since I packed up my cricket bag, and left to play for the Western Australian women’s state team - The Western Fury.
I hope this mini blog of my season so far will encourage other girls and boys to see that playing overseas is a great challenge and one that is possible.
I was greeted at the Airport by Fury coach, ex-Netherlands player and former Netherlands women’s coach, Job Van Bunge (JVB). It wasn’t hard to spot him as he’s a 6ft5 Dutch man!
Over the next few weeks I met all the Fury squad and we were training hard in the build up to the first State fixture of the year against the New South Wales Breakers at the WACA.
The girls train with their clubs two times a week along with state training at the WACA also twice a week. It’s impressive the amount of time the girls put in with extra sessions with their own personal coaches or with other team mates, which is also added to their schedules; most have fulltime jobs as well to contend with- from police officers to office workers. They have a very busy week, while lots of the younger girls study as well.
The first game for my club, Midland Guildford didn’t quite go to plan, but I managed to score a solid 93* a few games later against last year’s league winners South Perth. I am really enjoying playing for Midland Guildford. The game is taken very seriously and commitment and work ethic are taken into account for selection with so many players to pick from. This really gets the best out of the team and we are all a little scared of coach and captain Peta Merriles (former Fury Captain 10/11) who expects nothing short of 100%!
With the first match fast approaching, the whole team was raring to go. New South Wales have nine Australian players in their team; Ellyse Perry, Alex Blackwell, Lisa Schtaker…the list goes on. So we, the Fury, were basically playing Australia at the WACA.
The format of the competition is divided into T20s and OD matches. The T20s take place on the Friday and Sunday with the OD game slotting in on the Saturday. So a whole weekend against ‘Australia’!
So the day arrived and I entered the Fury changing room, it was huge, with Fury banners on the wall, our own separate cubicles, fridges filled with food and drinks (to my delight) physio for the Fury and fitness trainer to warm us up, like woah! The little things which all the girls in the Fury expect was pretty unbelievable to me. Anyway, I was there ridiculously early with JVB and didn’t really know what to do with myself. So, a little bit of Marvin Gaye on, whilst dancing around the oval, just the norm. Then the team started to arrive, so I actually did the norm and just sat in the changing room hell nervous!
The Fury have ex England internationalist Nicky Shaw, ex-Australian player Avril Fahey and other quality players with heaps of experience like Renee Chappell, Jenny Wallace and Kate Burns. They’re the older players, but the Fury have amazing young talent as well with Captain Nicole Bolton and Gemma Triscari who are both on the Australian coaches radar. Unfortunately, Bolts picked up a hip flexor tear prior to the match and was out of the games. VC Avril stepped up.
So I didn’t do anything in the first game, didn’t bowl, didn’t bat and fielded alright…but in the second game I was told to open the batting in replace of Bolts…eh, really like? Good idea? I was not convinced as I’ve never really done it before…anyway! I thought nothing to lose, no real expectation, I’m a replacement. Ellyse Perry was opening the bowling…just think of her as a guy bowler back home…help me!
Well, what would you know. I blocked/left/more leaving/more blocking/a bit more leaving/singled my way to 43 off about 10,000 balls! The coach seemed happy though. Well, apart from paddle sweeping the Australia quick opener for 4 when I was on 1 run. Oh also, you know, pulled Ellyse Perry for 4! I also bowled 2 overs and picked up the wicket of Rachael Haynes (she just scored 150 in the 50ov final like 2 days ago).
Oh, but we lost, forgot to mention that! They’re so good though, like amazing! Their fielding was just as good as the Scottish men’s team, their batting was excellent, real no fear cricket! They all just oozed confidence and in doing so usually dominate. Their bowling was accurate and quick and the spin bowlers kept it simple and slowed the run rate right down. Just you’re average Australian women’s team really!
So all in all, a pretty awesome first month. Oh, I forgot to mention the mosquitos, actually you probably don’t want to know about them! I’m sorry this is so long. It’s taken me 4 months to write this and I’ve just waffled on- the next one won’t be so long, I promise. Our next fixture is against Victoria and I’ll let you guys back home know what we do outside of training…shooting range anyone?
I hope all is well back there!
