Leinster Girls Continue to Learn From the Best

Masterclass Series with International Stars

The sun finally came out this past weekend for the first in Cricket Leinster’s series of masterclasses. Players from our U15 and U17 girls’ panels were invited to sign up to learn from some of the province’s best players and coaches in specific aspects of the game, and the initiative was met with great enthusiasm.

Refixed from the previous weekend due to poor weather, the first of these masterclasses took place on Saturday in a sun-soaked Merrion CC where Australia-born Celeste Raack along with home-grown talents Harry Tector and Gareth Delany introduced 20 spin-hopefuls to off-spin and leg-spin.

Every player was taught the basics of both types of spin and given the opportunity to try them out. Some of the attendees already bowl spin; they had the chance to try some more advanced skills and speak to the mentors about what they could add to their games and how to improve.

“It’s a big issue within the girls and women’s game in Ireland that we have a huge amount of medium-pace seam and swing bowlers and very few spin bowlers. This has the knock-on effect that competition at the higher levels for spinners is low and it also means there are not enough spinners playing in the club game and that the batters, then, have very little opportunity to learn how to bat against spin,” explains Leinster Women and Girls’ Development officer, Isobel Joyce. “We then have the situation where young international players are going to tournaments and facing top level spinners without having the tools to play them effectively.

“I think it’s a catch 22 situation. We don’t have many adult spinners and so young girls have nobody to emulate and there are also not many coaches of women’s teams teaching it. It’s certainly not my expertise and that’s where I came up with the idea of running this masterclass. When there are so few spinners playing cricket at any level in Leinster, we don’t learn to watch the ball from the hand and understand what different things spinners do, and so when you get to higher levels, you really have no idea how to play it.”

Joyce hopes it will have been an eye-opening experience. “Best case scenario, a number of the girls take up spin bowling and the ones that already do bowl it, stick with it. If that doesn’t happen, then at least the players now know what the types of spin are and how to recognise it so it can at least help them with their batting.”

It was a privilege to have such high-profile talents delivering the sessions. “The last year has been huge for both Harry and Gareth, so for them to be so willing to give back to young players coming through really says something about the attitude of those guys and the clubs they come from – YMCA and Leinster respectively.

“Celeste is doing great work with the girls in her club, Merrion CC, and she is always happy to help out with pretty much anything I ask her. Added to that is her incredible love for legspin bowling, so we were very lucky to have her teaching the girls because that kind of passion really comes across to kids.”

The weather played ball again on Sunday and there were great conditions for the second masterclass in Malahide – diving and sliding with Fintan McAllister and John Anderson. Fintan McAllister is Development Officer for Dublin City and is renowned for his fielding coaching in particular, while Anderson was capped 26 times for Ireland, retiring in 2018, captained the Leinster Lightning for two highly successful seasons and has been one of the best fielders in the domestic game since he first came to Ireland in 2005.

After a number of demonstrations run by Fintan and carried out by John, the girls were thrown in the deep end and asked to “be brave and give it a go”.

“It’s rare that you get to give diving and sliding a go when the grass is a good bit longer and the outfield so soft, so fair play to the girls for showing the enthusiasm and coming out on a cold day in November to throw themselves around,” said McAllister.

“I’m seeing a real change in attitude from the younger girls around cricket these days. It used to be that only a few girls in any team were willing to dive around the place, now it’s something they expect from themselves and something they enjoy being taught and doing,” remarked Isobel. “It shows the growing awareness of what’s expected of them but also the changing attitudes around what’s appropriate or ‘right’ for a girl or woman to be doing,” she added.

Next up in the masterclasses is hitting over the top with former Ireland International Clare Shillington and Ireland Wolves and Leinster Lightning top-order batsman Stephen Doheny.