FEMALE cricketers in Swan Hill can now proudly boast they have their own league with the Swan Hill District Cricket Association Murray Downs Female Competition (MDFC).
Junior girls from Swan Hill had been competing in the Wimmera Girls Cricket League (WGCL) for the past two seasons for the Murray Downs Diamonds.
But for the 2022-23 season, there were now enough players to start a competition in town.
Diamonds head coach Alan Hatcher explained to The Guardian how the competition would work.
“It will be a three-team league and what will happen is two teams play against each other every Wednesday night whilst the other trains,” he said.
“We’ve got 20 girls signed up, which is a big improvement on last year, and they’ll be divided into three teams of six or seven, which is all you need for girl’s cricket.”
The rise in participation is not a phenomenon localised to Swan Hill.
The number of girls registered for junior club cricket in Australia has risen from 10,700 in the summer of 2019-20 to 13,200 this August.
Hatcher said the rise was down to “a lot more exposure” of women’s cricket on television with the Women’s Big Bash League and the success of national team, the Southern Stars.
“Women’s cricket has been going for nearly 100 years,” he said.
“But it’s getting much more attention now and some big names like Alyssa Healy and Meg Lanning are getting even more recognition than the men.”
A competition in Swan Hill gives local girls a chance to play the game without significant travel, enjoy it with their mates and for the younger girls to compete at a level more suitable to their ability.
“It’s always been an aim of ours to start a girl’s league in Swan Hill and hopefully, this is the first step to allowing us to have a major competition,” Hatcher said.
“The girls have said they really enjoy playing with and against other girls, so this is awesome for them to have their own competition.”
The development benefits this will give the girls are incalculable and, according to Hatcher, might even help a few take the next step up the cricketing pyramid.
“This is massive for women’s cricket in town, and it will help the girls improve tenfold, plus get them more recognition from state sides,” he said.
“We already have Issy Boulton competing for Victoria in the under 16s plus a few more playing for premier clubs, and they are a great resource for the younger girls.”
A change of venue is on the cards, with the Showgrounds turf pitch unable to be ready for Wednesday nights.
“We currently train at the Showgrounds, but we’ve been talking to the association to potentially move it to Ken Harrison Reserve so we can play on the hard wicket because it’s too tough to get a turf pitch up for a Wednesday,” Hatcher said.
“We decided to play on Wednesday because it was the only day we could do it without interfering, as there’s cricket already on Friday nights and the Diamonds play Sunday.”
The MDFC will not signal the end of the Diamonds competing in the WGCL though.
The Diamonds are now, in effect Swan Hill’s representative side, made up of the best players from the three MDFC teams.
“We’ll still compete on Sundays with eight to nine of our oldest and best players,” Hatcher said.
“The rest of the squad will be coming and supporting them, so they’ll still be very much a part of the side.”
The Diamonds’ first game will be this Sunday at the Showgrounds against the Horsham Hurricanes, and they will enter the season as defending champions.
The MDFC is set to start in a fortnight’s time – girls wishing to join were welcome to head down to training on Wednesday nights at 5.15 PM.
