BLAIR BURNS

CASTERTON’S Alyssa Humphries continues to reach great heights in her cricketing endeavours as the 22-year-old was selected into the Cricket Victoria Female Emerging Performance Squad for the 2023-24 season.

 The emerging performance squad provides the 16 selected cricketers with a pathway from premier cricket to the state squad through additional playing and training opportunities.

Humphries concluded a stellar 2022-23 season winning a premiership with Essendon-Maribyrnong Park Bombers in the Women’s Premier Cricket Firsts.

This was capped off by a great individual effort which saw her finish third in the Una Paisley Medal count which is the competition’s best and fairest award.

The aggressive opening batter had a massive year with the bat in hand, as she scored bulk runs for the Bombers which included a top score of 81 (from 101 balls) against Box Hill in round seven.

She notched up 589 runs across 23 matches with a batting average of 32.72 and belted plenty of balls over the fence throughout the year.

Humphries said she was excited about the opportunity to push herself against and alongside some of the states’ best talent.

“(I’m) very excited as it’s always great to get recognised and picked in these squads to help further and improve my skills with a talented bunch of girls,” she said.

“To train in an elite environment and be exposed to the same coaches and facilities as the state team will be a great learning curve (and) it will definitely help with my long-term goals.”

Humphries was selected in the same squad a few years ago but wasn’t able to fully utilise the trainings and coaches at hand, due to the COVID lockdowns.

She said it was pleasing to have a solid season at club level with EMP but was still looking to learn lots alongside some teammates who were also selected.

“It’s always great to perform at club level and to be rewarded in the squad is a great achievement, hopefully getting selected in this squad will help and continue on with my performances from this year to next season,” she said.

“It’s going to be very valuable, and I will definitely learn a lot from this experience … (it) just showcases how talented our group is at EMP and to further our skills coming into the next season.”

The access to high-performance coaches was one part of the emerging performance squad that Humphries was most looking forward to.

Her sole areas of focus will be on improving her batting and fielding to take back and put into place at premier cricket level.

“We have an hour before training starts each Monday and Wednesday to work on our individual game one-on-one with coaches,” she said.

“I will definitely be focussing on my batting and fielding, just different parts of batting that you don’t always get to focus on at club training.

“(My goal is to) get as much out of it as possible, getting a head-start on training twice a week until the season starts in October.”

The squad has been selected from players who have shown strong performances in Victorian Premier Cricket as well as Victorian Women’s squad exhibition matches.

Cricket Victoria’s female talent development manager, Andy Christie said the squad was a great opportunity for those players looking to further enhance their cricketing skills with state-of-the-art facilities and coaches.

“The key purpose of the emerging performance squad is to equip players for the start of the Victorian Premier Cricket season and offer an enhanced skill and personal development opportunity with strong links to the Victorian State Women’s program,” he said.

“Players selected have shown consistent and high-level performances over the previous season and we’re looking forward to assisting their development over the coming months.”

The full squad includes: Aanliya Cheeran (Geelong), Cailin Green (Carlton), Samara Dulvin (Ringwood), Carly Fuller (EMP), Erica Kershaw (Carlton), Ella Stallwood (Melbourne), Eve Sheehan (Carlton), Holly Spencer (Box Hill), Hasrat Gill (Melbourne), Katia Jomini (EMP), Alyssa Humphries (EMP), Madison Albers (Carlton), Maddie White (Prahran), Sara Kennedy (Carlton), Tiana Atkinson (Dandenong) and Una Raymond-Hoey (Ringwood).

The squad includes former state contracted player Tiana Atkinson, as well as two players who played in last season’s WBBL in Erica Kershaw and Una Raymond-Hoey.

The program will offer enhanced training opportunities throughout the pre-season and further match opportunities with and against the Victorian Women’s squad, the Melbourne Stars and Melbourne Renegades over the summer months.

Cricket Victoria’s Sport Science Sport Medicine (SSSM) staff will also be involved to provide additional support around strength and conditioning, physiotherapy, nutrition, and psychological performance.

The program will be overseen by Cricket Victoria’s cricket performance department with assistance from senior Victorian coaching staff Jarrad Loughman, Dulip Samaraweera and Simon Mackin who will assist in skill development sessions.

Humphries is also making waves in the world of indoor cricket after she recently travelled up to Brisbane for the Indoor Cricket National Championships in the open division.

Despite upsetting eventual winners, Queensland earlier in the week, the Big V fell short to the home side at the last hurdle.

“(It) was a great experience … we started the tournament off very strong only losing a couple games for the week, unfortunately we lost the grand final to a strong Queensland team,” she said.

“We did (beat) them earlier in the week and they hadn’t lost since 2017 nationals, so to knock them off and know we can beat them puts us in good stead for the next year.

“Next year’s nationals are at Casey Stadium giving us more of an advantage to bring home the silverware hopefully.”