Ballarat Cricket Association announced an all girls Milo in2Cricket program, Milo Twenty20 Blast competition and an under-13 competition in a bid to target the growing interest of cricket within junior girls.

The three programs provide a clearer pathway for girls to transition through the cricket ranks while providing a pure girls competition which is believed to increase participation.

Ballarat Cricket Associations Operations Officer Greg Wakeling said the BCA was excited to introduce the programs and was adamant the numbers were out there in the women’s game, it was just a matter of providing the appropriate outlets.

“We are hoping that this will be the start of something significant,” Wakeling said.

“There are so many girls out there that want to play cricket but there’s nothing out there for them to specifically get involved with.”

BCA is hopeful that these implementations will be the catalyst in spiking the participation and developing the game around the region and in the years to come providing a clear pathway to the elite levels of cricket. 

Targetting girls aged 7-12 would create the foundation to eventually develop an under-15 and under-17 girls competition.

Wakeling said the ultimate aim is to have a Ballarat team compete in the Victorian Premier Cricket League in Melbourne.

“The studies have shown that once the girls hit high school, they’re very unlikely to start a new sport – especially a sport that is traditionally played by men.

“That’s why we’ve gone with three younger programs in the hope that when the girls get older they’ll be able to break out to under-15 competitions and further on from that.”

The current programs in place see girls participate with boys in both the Milo programs and competitive cricket but Wakeling said the possibility to play in a girls team, while still playing against boys, is far more appealing to the junior girls and provides a better reflection of their talent.

Wakeling, who coaches a junior girls cricket team, said the feedback he’d received was overwhelming when it came to not only the interest to play, but the demand to have a girls competition.

“The worry for the girls is we don’t want to play with boys, that’s what the girls told me. If we can get them in an environment that they feel comfortable with you’ll get them flooding through the door.”