Growing Cricket for Girls

On Monday 30 October, ten Yr 5/6/7 girls travelled to Morphett Vale Primary School to compete in an inaugural Cricket Tournament between local schools.  This tournament was a result of the grant we won from Cricket Australia to promote ‘Growing Cricket for Girls’. Their research identified that girls were unlikely to participate in cricket at a young age under the current structure that sees boys and girls compete together in the same competition. With their funding we will invest in new cricket equipment to be used by all students at future tournaments and be accessible should we register enough students and have volunteers prepared to coach an after school team.

Our girls put in strong performances and were successful, taking several wickets and scoring plenty of runs from a combination scoring boundaries and aggressive running.

As PE teachers it is always rewarding to see examples of strong group dynamics, in particular when students are inclusive of others and working together to help everyone achieve their personal best. As part of the tournament our students were required to score and umpire. The fast pace of the games made this a difficult task though our girls were noticed by other teachers as being the best at doing so. Our students assigned specific responsibilities to each person, showed attentive listening and in doing so experienced success.

From having the courage to give a new sport a try, several girls from the tournament have expressed interest in wanting to play cricket as a summer sport.

We look forward to welcoming Morphett Vale Primary School to compete against our girls team in an upcoming after school match.

Gab Martin and Derryn Amoroso

PE Teachers