CRICKET NSW's new development officer for the Far West region is determined to increase participation and ensure more young girls realise cricket is not "just a boy's game".
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Cara Pocock has recently started in the brand new position for Cricket NSW and after seeing a huge number of juniors turn out for last week's Milo T20 Blast program at the Lady Cutler Ovals, she is excited about the opportunity to keep cricket growing in the region.
"So far there's been lots of info to take in but it's going well, at the T20 Blast there were 18 teams and that was much better than we expected, it's really taken off," she said.
Pocock, originally hailing from Hay in the Riverina but now living at Dubbo, worked under current Western Development Officer Matthew Tabbernor at Orange before taking on the Far West role and she admits at just 21 years of age there were some doubts originally.
"I'm one of the youngest females ever to go for a position like this so it's been a massive confidence boost," she said.
"I'm a lot younger than they (Cricket NSW) thought I was at first. It's not really a role young people go for because there's a lot of responsibility but it's exactly what I want to do."
That determination is sure to serve Pocock well with a keen focus of hers on more girls playing cricket, something she is very passionate about.
"It's already been big to see how many girls play cricket just because of me," she said.
"I was at a school recently and some of the girls didn't come out for it because they said it was a boy's game but they came out and the look on their face when they saw me up the front was great.
"We had about 20 girls at the T20 Blast and we're hoping to get 30 to 40 and that would be massive, we want to have an all girls competition here."
With the Far West such a big area to cover, Pocock's other focus was getting out to some of the region's smaller centres and ensuring cricket increased its popularity.
"I've got a real keen focus on small areas and getting out there as much as possible, I want to show it's not all about the big centres so we need to get out and show we care and support those areas," she said.