BOTH Eliza Jagger (Balmoral) and Alyssa Humphries (Casterton) have been selected in a squad of 14 to represent Victoria and travel to Canberra in January 2023 to compete at the Australian Country Cricket Championships (ACCC).
The Victoria Country Cricket League (VCCL) announced the squad last week and both locals were among some of the best talent in the state.
The cricket carnival will go from January 14-20, with multiple double headers lined up for the round robin fixture, which will see all seven teams play each other throughout the week.
Keith Jansz is full of experience and will be the head coach of the team, while Kristen Webber will be the team manager.
Jansz said all of the matches would be a T20 white ball format and would give the girls a great opportunity to showcase their talent to a wide audience.
“The carnival opens up a lot of doors for the girls in the future with WBBL, Australian cricket and Women’s IPL all growing,” he told The Spectator.
Jansz expected both Jagger and Humphries to contribute very well to the side, providing a lot of versatility to perform different roles.
“Eliza with her all round skills from fielding, batting and bowling, she gives us plenty of options … (she also) gives us a second option for keeper,” he said.
“Alyssa will more than likely open the batting and be our wicketkeeper, she’s a dynamic top order bat and will hopefully get us off to a good start.
“We go in there having won it back in 2019 with an experienced team, with this one we have eight debutants playing senior cricket for Victoria for the first time, but we would expect to finish top four.”
It is a massive achievement for the pair who have been spending plenty of time travelling this season to play women’s premier cricket, and both girls have started the season well with plenty of runs.
After representing Essendon-Maribyrnong Park (EMP) a few times last season, Jagger made the move to Geelong Cricket Club for season 2022-23, where she has played a mixture of seconds and thirds so far.
Across all formats, she has scored 145 runs this season at an average of 48.33 and has an incredible average of 106 in the women’s premier thirds competition.
Just two days before she was selected, Jagger hit 73-not-out for Geelong in the premier thirds to carry her side to a comfortable win.
The Balmoral local said it was a very “special” achievement and couldn’t wait for January, after she received a message from head coach, Jansz, a couple of weeks ago passing on the news of her selection.
“I’m pretty ecstatic … it’s an amazing opportunity for female country players like myself to compete at a high standard,” Jagger told The Spectator.
The talented top order batter said the news came as a bit of a surprise, as the Australian Country Cricket Championships were not previously on her radar.
But she couldn’t wait to get stuck into it and bring all her energy to a squad of girls that she was already very familiar with.
“After conversing with a few of the Geelong players who have previously been part of the squad (such as Tiegan Kavanagh and Steph Townsend), I quickly came to realise that it was something I was most certainly interested in,” the 19-year-old said.
“I hope to be a pivotal part in the field and use my rather boisterous mood to engage the other players and ensure a high intensity, I do hope to continue the form I have only recently started experiencing with the bat.
“(I’ve played with) the likes of Alyssa (Humphries), Tiegan (Kavanagh), Steph (Townsend), Renee (Cox), Maddie (Green), Anna (Habel) and Chelsea (Moscript) previously.”
Jagger said the step up to playing women’s premier cricket this season for Geelong had been one that allowed her to take her game, especially her batting to a whole new level.
“(It) has been an amazing way to further my skills and meet new people; they have been overly welcoming to me, and with the likes of Stephen Field as coach, having assisted me in making trainings and games,” she said.
Casterton’s Alyssa Humphries plays in the premier firsts for Essendon-Maribyrnong Park and has also been in great form in the past couple weeks smashing some big scores.
Humphries has similar season statistics, scoring 173 runs at an average of 43.25 – she has scored 130 of those in her last two hits.
Her season highlight so far came against Box Hill where she opened the batting and scored 81 off 101 balls, hitting six fours along the way and getting within striking distance of winning the game.
Humphries said while she has represented the ‘Big V’ in both indoor and outdoor cricket previously, this would be her first time playing in the championships.
“Looking forward to going away, it’s my first time being selected in this team … (and we’ve) got a young talented squad, so looking forward to getting into training and preparing for the tournament,” she said.
The former Casterton local is currently living in Melbourne and said the team’s form this season at Essendon-Maribyrnong Park had been pleasing.
Humphries said she was hoping to play in the upcoming tournament and to be selected was a special achievement.
“We are flying down here at EMP, we haven’t lost a game in the one-day competition, sitting on top of the ladder which is really great of our club,” she said.
“It’s always a privilege to pull on the Big V and play for your state … (and) always a good feeling when you get picked in these squads.
“I’ve had a couple of good weeks with the bat recently, so hoping I can take that form into the tournament … I haven’t played much with Eliza before, always against her, so looking forward to being her teammate this week.”
Despite having eight new debutants in the side and a very fresh team to previous seasons, Humphries backed in the talent of the group to go well this year.
“(We’re) hoping to have a successful tournament as a team as this is our first time playing together as a group so it’ll be a good challenge and hopefully, we can make it through to the finals,” she said.
