Emma Hughes dreams of playing for Australia.
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But with each tournament she takes part in and each representative side she makes, that dream gets a little closer and closer to a reality.
The local teenager has just returned home from the Cricket Australia Under-18s National Championship, where she took the new ball every day as ACT/NSW Country finished third.
The 16-year-old then had the huge honour of being selected in a Cricket Australia Under-18 Female Talent Squad, alongside 23 of the other most promising young cricketers in the country.
On top of that, Hughes is also in the NSW Breakers program, having played for a NSW Country side there recently, while she will also be spending time with the Sydney Thunder side in the coming weeks.
“I’m really happy to get this far and get the chance to keep going,” she said.
“And that makes me want to keep going. I want to one day play for Australia and all these opportunities give me more confidence and help build up more and the more teams I make the ore it will help me get there.”
Hughes enjoyed plenty of success at the National Championship, taking 10 wickets across the campaign at Hobart.
Competing at an under-18 level for the first time, and having tweaked her action in recent times to help increase speed and reduce wayward swing bowling, Hughes admitted she wasn’t feeling too confident.
But she proved herself one of the most consistent opening bowlers there, rarely going for more than four runs an over while she also got better as the tournament went on.
Hughes took her best figures of 3/29 from 10 in the third-place playoff against Victoria on the final day.
“There were some cases in which I feel I didn’t bowl great but the coach just told me to be confident,” she said.
“With me being new to 18s and the few changes to my bowling there was not as much confidence as last year but I’m glad all the effort I put in got me somewhere.”
One of the most tricky things for Hughes has been keeping a balance with the 16-year-old just finishing her exams on Monday.
That combined with going to Hobart for the Championship, trips to Sydney with the Thunder camps and also local cricket has kept her extremely busy.
But the young gun has loved every minute of it and is looking forward to spending time with the Thunder, where she will not only get expert advice, she’ll also receive training in aspects like dealing with the media and she will also sit in with Thunder sessions to hear from the high level coaches.
As well as all that, Hughes’ selection in the Under-18 Talent Squad means she will spend time at the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane ahead of the 2017-18 season.