New Thirds competition for women’s Victorian Premier Cricket
Players who have been identified as talented, “high potential’’ and “aspirational’’ will feature in the new grade as officials consolidate the women’s game.
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A new grade of Victorian women’s Premier Cricket will be on the fixture next season, but officials are saying it’s about consolidation rather than expansion.
The Premier Thirds has been introduced as a development competition to sit under the Firsts and Seconds.
It will primarily be for players under the age of 21.
Seven of the eight women’s clubs already had a Third XI, playing in community cricket ranks.
Only Dandenong will be required to find more players to fill a third side. The Panthers accepted their affiliation last week.
“This Premier Thirds conversation has been on our agenda for a couple of years now,’’ chair of the CV Women’s Premier Cricket panel and stalwart Box Hill player Penelope Cleghorn said.
“The purpose of it is to serve as a development competition for those Premier teams that have a Third XI and for the players to play against like-for-like athletes.
“The community competition that sits next to the women’s Premier competition is great for the clubs to be a part of but we were feeling for a couple of years that some of the players weren’t playing against players of similar ability, more so Under 21s who have aspirations to play at the top level.’’
She said PC panel discussed the concept with community cricket officials and weighed up a few options.
Ultimately “we thought it was important to have that branding of the Premier Thirds, so in the future when we are trying to expand we do have that Firsts, Seconds and Thirds structure in place’’, Cleghorn said.
“We’re still working through the machinations of the fixture, how many times we’ll play and the actual rules. But essentially we’re trying to find for women and girls the best spot for them to play.
“I think a lot of our conversations with the community panel and Cricket Victoria were that there’s not a clear hierarchy of Premiers ones, two, threes and then underneath is the community cricket.
“We’re pretty confident that lots of the teams and the players in the One Day Shield (the top grade of women’s community cricket) could easily compete in the seconds and thirds but their motives and their purpose for playing cricket are different to Premier Thirds players.’’
Cleghorn said there would be no age restriction for the new competition but players would primarily be under the age of 21.
She said clubs and Cricket Victoria had identified some of the players as talented, “high potential’’ and “aspirational’’.
Cleghorn said CV supported the concept of a Thirds competition, but clubs would have to fund it.
“At the moment there’s no financial support for it, which is a little bit disappointing from the panel’s perspective,’’ she said.
“We knew coming into it that we wouldn’t be getting that financial support but it’s an important conversation to have in coming years to ensure these Premier Thirds girls are getting the support from CV that their counterparts in women’s one and twos and men’s ones through to fours are getting.’’
Cleghorn said consolidation was one of the key points of the women’s Premier Cricket strategy for 2019-2022.
She said the community clubs were working well in developing women’s cricket and helping strengthen it for expansion in coming years.
Cleghorn is one of four nominations for the Cricket Victoria board.
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