Arundel Girls cricket team, Zimbabwe - the captain reports

I started a cricket team at Arundel at the end of last year and it is going quite well so far. We have between 20 and 24 players who come to practices.

We are being coached by some people from the ZCU.

We practise every Tuesday and Thursday afternoons from 3.30 to 4.30 on our athletics pitch due to lack of space elsewhere. I'm not sure if any other girls' schools play, but Chisipite's team collapsed a few years ago. Our coach is trying to start teams at Vainona and Girls' High School. We are proceeding very slowly at the moment due to there being more 'new' girls as compared to 'old' girls but we are getting there slowly.

I started playing cricket myself at quite a young age due to the fact that I have three brothers who play cricket. I was extremely interested during the World Cup and figured that if guys could play, why couldn't we? I went to Mrs Alcock, our headmistress, who gave me permission to start it. In one of our newsletters she asked if there were any parents interested in helping to get it started and Andy Pycroft came forward. When he wasn't busy he came to coach us on Thursday afternoons and then the coaches from the ZCU came and took over from there. This all happened in the third term last year. We actually played one match last term against Glen View and we lost drastically, but we'd been playing for just under two months and some of them had been playing for well over three years but we gained valuable experience.

We are using plastic balls so we do not need pads, gloves, etc., yet. We are using wooden wickets already made up for easy transport which were made by my uncle. Some second-hand bats were donated by the Lakes. We are also using some hand-made bats that the ZCU lent us. I organised the practice sessions on alternative afternoons to athletics. At the moment I am the most advanced player and hope to play club cricket at Old Georgians Sports Club. Veronica de Jong and the Light triplets as well as Keren Richardson are probably the better players. I have had to do everything from finding the kit to players, coaches and everything else that goes with it. I have had little support from any staff other than getting the permission to have the team. I have been told though that I am greatly admired by some of them for my perseverance.

At the moment we are learning the basics - batting, bowling, fielding, etc., but I just do my own practising. We have not had much parental assistance other than Mr. Pycroft, basically because I don't think they know what is happening and because there has been little publicity about my team as such within the school.