“I THINK a lot of other sports as options is why there aren’t a lot of girls playing cricket and sometimes they might think, ‘oh cricket that’s so boring’, but I think sports like basketball can be boring, so we’ve all got our thing. I think if other girls came and had a go, they’d realise it can be quite fun – I used to think cricket was boring but now I love it,” Macey Williamson.

Macey Williamson loves to play cricket and she is one of four girls who are currently competing in the five-team Portland and District Cricket Association under-16 competition.

The 13-year-old has been an impressive addition to the Colts under-16 side after moving through the under-13 ranks.

This was on show during their clash against Drumborg-Heywood recently when she finished with figures of 3-0 including two wickets in three balls.

The youngest of the four players, Williamson said she wasn’t sure of the game when she was first introduced to it but now has big ambitions moving forward.

“I probably started playing for Colts about three years ago now,” she said.

“I used to hate cricket when I was little, my brother used to play backyard cricket with me and he always used to make me bowl and it was the most dreadful thing. When I went in to bat I’d always just swing, miss it and go out so I used to get three or four lives until he’d make me go out, I just hated it.

“It wasn’t until about three or four years ago until I thought this is actually quite fun, I can play this. Now I’d like to play for Australia one day.”

Williamson is in a team with another young cricketer who has been pushing through the ranks, Matilda Andrews, who was invited to trial for the Westerns Waves representative team.

Andrews and Williamson grew up playing cricket in the backyard – Andrews’ father Luke has been a long-time player with Colts – and have come to the association after getting into the game in their early years, which is different to two of the game’s newcomers, Marnie Mueller and Saige Bell, who this season have taken to the field for Drumborg-Heywood in their first ever season.

The pair have made a statement with recent performances earning Mueller, the team’s regular wicket keeper, a call up in the PDCA under-13 Country Week squad.

Both players said they jumped on board because it was something to have a go at.

“This is our first season,” Bell said.

“It was just something to do so we said yeah.”

Mueller echoed the sentiment – “We just thought it’d be pretty fun,” she said.

Motivations for Williamson are a little bit different, who says she loves the game, but particularly the craft that makes cricket what it is.

“People think there isn’t as much of a mental side to cricket but there really is,” she said.

“Working through all of the distractions and voices in your head when you go out for a duck and things like that – you’re thinking ‘I’m not good enough to bat at three so I won’t be there again now’, but then you remind yourself even the professionals go out for ducks, even Donald Bradman did.”

Despite finding different pathways into the sport the four players have one thing in common – they’re not fazed coming up against the boys.

“We don’t really think about it,” Bell said.

“We just play.”

“I’d love it if we had a women’s competition in town but playing with the boys isn’t too bad, when they bowl fast to you it’s good to get that experience,” Williamson said.

“I reckon deep down they get a bit scared of me.”