By Andy Wilson
As the senior England women’s team arrive in New Zealand for a tour that begins with their latest fixtures in the ICC Women's Championship, a group of 10 young pace bowlers are nearing the end of a training camp in South Africa that should bear rich dividends in the future.
Thanks to funding from Sport England, a first fast bowling development camp has been held at the High Performance Institute of Sport in Potchefstroom – where the men’s bowlers have relished the opportunities provided by high-altitude, warm-weather winter training for a while, and the England Lions were due to play their latest one-day match against South Africa A yesterday, only for rain to intervene.
“It’s just been brilliant,” said Sallian Briggs, the under-19s head coach who has led the programme, assisted by the former Glamorgan seamer David Harrison and Jonathan Finch, the high performance manager for women’s and girls cricket in England.
“We’ve previously had very limited contact time during the winter. But out here we’re managing to get some high quality skill development sessions in over the 10 days, which is almost like doing three months work in less than a fortnight.
“That’s in addition to batting, fielding and the work with our strength and conditioning coach Jonty Norris which is a pivotal part of the camp.
“It’s been a great opportunity and experience for the girls, and we’ve seen some great progress made. This trip is an education process, it helps build their awareness of where they are and what further development goals need to be put in place.
“This pace bowling camp plays a pivotal part in our succession planning, and is important to expose the girls to different environments to develop a broad range of skills.
“Katherine Brunt and Anya Shrubsole have led the England attack brilliantly for a while now, Kate Cross has come through more recently, and hopefully they’ll feature for a long time. But we hope in the near future, the bowlers here will be pushing for their places.”
The girls are aged from 15 to 23, and come from all around the country.
Katie George is the youngest, a 15-year-old originally from Dorset who is now based in Hampshire, and has also made national training camps as a footballer, but currently has her sights set on emulating Mitchell Johnson as a left-arm quick.
Like the other seven girls in South Africa from the development programme, her first goal is to earn a place in the England Women’s Academy, which has already been achieved by Alex MacDonald, who left Gloucestershire for Yorkshire last summer, and Paige Scholfield of Sussex.
MacDonald has been joined in Potchefstroom by her Yorkshire team-mate Beatrice Firth, from Leeds, and Sussex also have a second representative in Tara Norris – who will shortly be returning to South Africa as her school, the Portslade Aldridge Academy, have a trip to Cape Town later this month.
Cordelia Griffith, who is from Essex, has been granted a brief break from her law studies at Durham University.
The south-west is well represented, with Sophie Mackenzie from Cornwall and Cait O’Keefe from Plymouth, and the group are completed by Anna Nicholls, an exciting 16-year-old talent from Middlesex, and the evocatively named Emily Arlott, originally from Shropshire but now with Worcestershire.
“One of the main reasons we want to establish this programme long-term is to ensure we continue to provide an environment for young fast bowlers to flourish.” Finch explained.
“We know the physical demands that Cross, Brunt and Shrubsole have to go through and we are ensuring this group of young bowlers are prepared for the ever improving international game."