Port Adelaide Cricket Club hopeful Amanda-Jade Wellington can play for its men’s side next season after losing top women’s team
A local cricket club has been removed from SA’s top women’s competition but it hopes to retain its Australian player — so she can line up regularly with its men’s team.
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Port Adelaide Cricket Club wants Australian spinner Amanda-Jade Wellington to play in its men’s ranks next season after its removal from women’s grade competitions for 2019/20.
The SA Cricket Association on Tuesday announced the Magpies, who have fielded women’s sides since the mid-1990s and produced female stars such as Wellington and former national captain Karen Rolton, would not be part of a restructured A or B grade.
Port forfeited seven of its 10 women’s matches last season due to a lack of players, leading Wellington, a 22-year-old leg-spinner currently in England with the Australia A squad, to feature in three Magpies men’s games — two in the Ds and one in the Bs.
The Magpies had been hopeful of fielding a women’s A-gradebut did not meet SACA’s selection criteria that required clubs to show they could fill two female sides by last week.
Port president Sean Holden said his club was disappointed to miss out but would still field a women’s community team next season and was optimistic it could grow its female player numbers from there, then return to the SACA competition in 2020/21.
Holden said although Port would help players who wanted to continue at grade level find new homes, it was intent on having Wellington line up with its men — most likely the Bs — on Saturdays and another club’s women’s team on Sundays, pending SACA permission.
Wellington, who has lined up in one Test, 12 one-dayers and eight Twenty20s for Australia, has spent her entire career with the Magpies and is one of just three females, along with Rolton and England wicketkeeper Sarah Taylor, to play in SACA’s top two men’s grades.
“Our concentration now is twofold: looking after the welfare of the players and finding them a home for this season and using the next 12 months to roll out our programs so we can have an A, B grade and under-17s next year (2020/21),” Holden said.
“(Wellington) was the first person I got onto (after SACA’s decision) … and I said we wanted to help her find another club to play in the women’s but we’d like her to stay as a Port Adelaide player in the men’s.
“She said ‘absolutely, I’m Port through and through, I’ll play men’s cricket with Port’.”
Port’s omission reduces the A grade from six to five teams for next season — Sturt, West Torrens, Southern District, Northern Districts and Kensington.
The second tier will have seven clubs — those in the A grade, as well as Adelaide University and Glenelg, whose second sides will be in community cricket.
SACA restructured the competition after teams submitted squad lists, along with information about coaches, facilities, culture, recruitment and retaining players, for evaluation.
“The nomination process has helped us to understand that we currently have the depth for five teams to consistently play competitive cricket at first-grade level,” SACA high-performance general manager Tim Nielsen said.
“Adding a sixth team would mean we increase the potential of players leaving the game altogether through lack of opportunity and playing in a competition beyond their skill level.
“In the long-term, we believe we will have a more sustainable and robust competition for the development of female cricket and for the development of players.”
SACA has introduced a new full-time role, a women’s “pathway co-ordinator”, who will focus on player development and provide support for clubs.
The Advertiser is seeking comment from Wellington.
