Mid West four win State call-up for cricket

The Mid West will be well represented at the inaugural Women’s Australian Country Cricket Championships in Mount Gambier next week, with four players in the 13-member squad.

The tournament, which runs from January 4 to 12, will see Marika Smith, Sarah Prickett, Lauren Mainwaring and Kavita Pepper test their skills against the best female cricketers in Australia.

Smith, who started playing in the 2014 Imparja Cup and now plies her trade for Bluff Point-Strathalbyn in the men’s B-grade and also in the Sunset Scorchers women’s competition, said it was special to be a part of history.

Prickett played as a child but had been out of the sport for a number of years before the Sunset Scorchers started this spring.

She will be the team’s wicketkeeper and has been brushing up her skills with the Wanderers cricket club.

They will join Perth-based pair Mainwaring and Pepper when they hook up with the squad in early January for training.

WA opens its campaign in the 20-overs-a-side competition on Thursday, January 7, against Northern Territory/South Australia at McDonald Park.