Seven cricketers from Parramatta have bright futures in the game after they were selected in Cricket NSW’s Female Pathway Squads.
The Female Pathways Squads are a state-wide program responsible for the identification and development of talented female cricketers catering to players from the U16 to U19 age groups.
Three Parramatta players – Lakshmi Rajadurai, Marlie Pathirana and Aurora Mavros – were named in the U16 NSW Metropolitan State Squad, while four ladies from Parramatta also – Alex Mavros, Kate Pelle, Lucy Wilson and Zoe Murdoch – were chosen in the U19 NSW Metropolitan State Squad.
Speaking with Parra News, Cricket NSW High Performance Coach for Female Pathways, Sarah Aley, said selection in a pathways squad is often the first step to becoming a professional player.
“A lot of players that are within these squads are striving to be professional cricketers one day and with the recent MOU that came out and a lot more money being pumped into women’s cricket, girls can look at it as a potential career,” she said.
“We’ve got quite a few girls spread out across the whole state.
“We are here to help develop these girls into the best cricketers and best people that they can be.”
The Cricket NSW Female Youth Pathway is the most successful in the country, with both the U19 NSW Female Metropolitan and U16 NSW Female Metropolitan squads claiming 2023/23 National Championships in Perth and Canberra, respectively.
Recent Metropolitan Youth State Squad products Claire Moore and Kate Pelle – both from Parramatta – were selected in the Australian side for the most recent U19 T20 World Cup in South Africa, after a string of solid performances at the 2022/23 U19 Female National Championships in Perth.
Aley said she can’t wait to start working with the players.
“The ones in the U19 squad we’ve had our eye on for quite some time, especially the girls from Parramatta, they’ve been in the squad for quite a few years,” she said.
“The girls that are coming through, that are younger, we start to look at the representative competitions that are from U13 and U15 – we keep an eye on them. We try and make sure we pick the best girls we think have the potential to go on to play for NSW or even Australia.”
Troy Dodds is Parra News' Managing Editor and Breaking News Reporter. He has more than 20 years experience as a journalist, working with some of Australia’s leading media organisations. In 2023, he was named Editor of the Year at the Mumbrella Publish Awards.