Barwon Women’s Cricket Competition launches in style

THE Barwon Women’s Cricket Competition season has officially been launched with more than 100 people turning out at GMHBA Stadium on Friday last week in anticipation for the exciting season ahead.

In 2022/23, the competition is expected to feature 48 sides, up from 17 in the inaugural season in 2019/20, and hopes are high to continue expanding the sport in the Barwon region.

On Friday night, attendees had the pleasure of listening to a host of special guests including head of women’s cricket at Cricket Victoria and former Australian netball captain Sharelle McMahon.

McMahon spoke about her journey from regional Victorian dairy country kid to Australian netball captain, plus all of the incredible work she has been doing with women’s sporting bodies to keep on moving women’s sport to bigger and better things.

Barwon Women’s Cricket Competition sub-committee member Adam Di Giacomo said McMahon was the perfect guest for the launch event.

“We couldn’t have asked for a better person to speak at this event.

“Sharelle has been a perfect choice by Cricket Victoria to keep driving Women’s cricket forward with her knowledge of high-performance environments.

“She has been fantastic to work with and is an integral part of driving standards up from grassroots to the Victorian team and WBBL franchises.”

Talking about the association goals for 2022-23, Di Giacamo mentioned the first-year post pandemic season would provide many great opportunities to further grow the sport in the region.

“The Barwon Women’s Cricket Competition is now in its fouth season and has exceeded expectations.

“The early meetings were optimistic of having five or six teams for the first season, that ended up being 17 teams, season 2 saw 28 teams, season 3 there were 37 teams and as we stand heading into season 4, we have 6 grades with 48 teams.

“Four years ago, there was no competition and now the region supports one of the largest women’s community competitions in Victoria.”

Di Giacamo said 2022-23 would present longer formats and a reshuffled finals agenda.

A Grade players will now have the opportunity to go for a century with 40 over matches being played for the first time, while grades through from C to F will trial a finals series that includes all clubs being alive to play in the Grand Final until after week two of the four-week series.

The cricket competition also hopes to run All Star matches at the end of the season and aim to have a Junior Girls and Senior Women Award evening again in 2022-23.

The Barwon Women’s Cricket Competition launch evening also included guest speakers from the Geelong Cricket Club and event presenting partners Lord’s Taverners Geelong, who discussed the role they played in giving disadvantaged children a sporting chance across Greater Geelong.

With their sights firmly set on the coming season, the Barwon Women’s Cricket Competition hope more women continue to become involved in the sport and are inviting players to join in.

The BWCC season is expected to start this weekend.