THE Western Country Regional Cricket Hub has been a hive of activity in recent days with Cricket Victoria’s Under-19 girls emerging players squad visiting for a camp ahead of the start of the 2022-23 pre-season.

Cricket Victoria coaches and the squad of 20 players arrived on Monday and will remain until this morning with the local facilities getting rave reviews once again.

Emerging Player Performance manager for females, Andy Christie said it was a good opportunity to get the group together away from the usual environment ahead of the upcoming season.

“It is just a great opportunity for them to roll into pre-season with some clear plans,” he said.

“It is a big part of it (getting away from Melbourne), not just the skill element but to travel and learn how to travel and be away from home and perform under different circumstances.

“The great thing about coming away on a camp is we have time, we have more time with players so we can spend one on one time with them.

“As a whole, the standard is getting better and better and they are students of the game.”

It was the first time in Hamilton for the squad and Christie said the feedback had been positive so far.

“All in all, they have been impressed with it all, as soon as they walked in, they were all smiling ear to ear and having access to these facilities has been brilliant,” he said.

“The male emerging program was meant to be here last week, but there were some players interstate and overseas with holidays and there has been comments about how valuable this could be for pre-season camps.”

Watching on is new Cricket Victoria head of female cricket, Sharelle McMahon, who also visited the hub for the first time.

McMahon said it was important for young athletes to be able to be able to train and perform in unfamiliar environments, with the trip giving the girls a taste of what it would be like to travel for cricket commitments for nearly a week.

“It is an incredible facility and we are really lucky this young group of cricketers can experience this, to be able to come together away from Melbourne but to still have first class facilities,” she said.

“A lot of what we do is based in Junction Oval as a central point, so to give opportunities for players to experience things regionally is great.

“We picked one of the players up on the way through, which is great.

“This is the first time this group has come together for this season.

“When you are in a camp environment, it is a bit of a different feel.

“For us, this camp is looking at things holistically.

“There will be some specific skills we work on, (but) this is really about the athlete as a whole and not focusing on one particular thing.”

As the impact of COVID reduces, it has allowed more of these camps to take place and McMahon said she was hopeful for similar opportunities to continue for other groups.

“Certainly so far it has been successful, so if there are more opportunities, we will be exploring them for sure,” she said.

“We are crossing our fingers this season will be a bit more normal and we are coming together more often than we have over the past few seasons.”