Housemate trio from country Victoria set to fulfil World Cup dream
THEY moved from country Victoria to the Big Smoke to fulfil their sporting dreams. Now this trio of housemates could line up together at the Women’s T20 World Cup.
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GROUP shopping trips to Chadstone, inter-house table tennis tournaments and carpooling to work, it sounds no different to the lives of plenty of kids not too long out of school.
Sophie Molineux, Georgia Wareham and Tayla Vlaeminck are Malvern East housemates, sharing life’s simple pleasures — and the dishes — but also their childhood dream. And that’s playing cricket for Australia.
They’ve all moved to Melbourne from country Victoria — Bairnsdale, Mortlake and Bendigo respectively.
And now the trio is together in the West Indies as a part of Australia’s tilt at its fourth World T20 title, with the tournament starting in Guyana on November 10 (AEDT).
“We’re in a danger zone because we’re about a 100m walk from Chadstone,” Molineux said.
“We spend a bit of time there, a bit of retail therapy.
“And we’ve got a nice little cafe down the road that we all find ourselves going to for breakfast. We’ve settled in really well.”
There have been sisters who’ve played together at the highest level (Alex and Kate Blackwell), brothers who do too — the Marshes the most recent — and a husband-wife combination in Alyssa Healy and Mitchell Starc.
These housemates also share a special bond.
“We’re country kids just trying to find our way in the city — we’ve got each other’s back,” Molineux told the Herald Sun.
“The first couple of years moving to the city can be quite hard. I think we’re really lucky that we’re in the same space as each other.
“We can drive to training together, debrief after sessions, get to gym sessions or running sessions together.
“We can sort of use each other as motivation. The early morning gym sessions, we all find ourselves cramming into a car with coffee in a travel mug. I think in that sense it’s been amazing, actually.”
The trio was in Malaysia last month as part of Australia’s successful one-day and T20 series against World Cup opponent Pakistan, Molineux and Wareham making their one-day debut in the same match.
Vlaeminck, 20, debuted in a T20 game soon after.
“We had breakfast yesterday and we looked at each — it was after Tay debuted — and we sort of just had a moment there where we were like ‘this is just incredible’,” Molineux, 20, said.
“We wouldn’t have ever imagined this, even two months ago, let alone when we first started playing cricket together four or five years ago. It’s really special.”
For 19-year-old Wareham, having her friends by her side has been invaluable.
“It’s almost a home away from home with Tay and Soph,’ Wareham said.
“I think coming into a new group it’s always good to know a few people really well and just hang around them. It’s not awkward, like when you start off not knowing anyone.”
They moved in with each other in February, with Wareham and Vlaeminck joining Molineux and Melbourne Renegades batter Rhiann O’Donnell in their four-bedder.
There’s a small backyard but there hasn’t been any cricket sessions or barbecues during the winter months.
Instead the friends have a table tennis table inside.
“We play a lot, we’ve got a rankings system,” Molineux said.
“We all think we’re the best. As you can imagine, we’re all quite competitive.
“I think it might be me No. 1 and Georgia No. 2, but it’s continuously changing.”
This team within a team is sure making its mark, with spinners Molineux and Wareham likely to face Pakistan in the first group game of the World T20 and pace bowler Vlaeminck not far behind.
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Originally published as Housemate trio from country Victoria set to fulfil World Cup dream