A female cricket program in Dubbo which has seen participation rates for the game soar will be used as a template for other associations across the state.
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The success of the Dubbo District Cricket Association program, which is run on a Thursday night and also links with a Primary Schools Sports Association (PSSA) competition, has not gone unnoticed.
Samantha Devlin, the Cricket NSW Female Participation Specialist, visited the city last week in order to see firsthand what makes the format so popular and so successful.
"The PSSA has been feeding the association-based competition and it's really good to see so many girls interested in cricket," she said.
"I'm based in Sydney and it's definitely head and shoulders above some of the stuff in Sydney so that's really good and we want to replicate what Dubbo is doing everywhere else."
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Devlin said it was a three-way relationship which makes the program work and grow.
Cricket NSW Development Manger for the Far West, Matt Ellis, has been passionate about growing the women's game and has put in plenty of work behind the scenes while Lisa Hunt is the one who runs the program on the ground and PSSA girls cricket coordinator Sue Nuttall has been involved with the game in a school sense for a number of years.
Nuttall gives a huge number of girls their introduction to the game and as the interest grows the pathway through the Woolworths Cricket Blast format on a Thursday night, which runs with a focus on fun as much as development, is on offer.
Twenty-two teams were taking part in the latest PSSA day last Friday and that number continues to grow, while more than 80 girls registered to take part in this season's Cricket Blast program.
We want to replicate what Dubbo is doing everywhere else.
- Cricket NSW's Samantha Devlin
"Getting the girls in through the PSSA is a good, safe way to do so and girls feel safe within the school environment with their friends," Devlin said, before speaking about what stood out to her on Thursday night.
"Just the fun the girls were having. A lot of them have been part of a team already so they're with their friends and they're dancing to music and having fun and their parents are their enjoying the game as well.
"Hopefully that all transitions into club cricket and into the hard ball stuff and they become cricket fans or players for life."
Devlin has played cricket since she was a child but never had the chance to be part of a girls-only side when she was in the juniors.
She said the growth of the game in the past five years alone - since the start of the Women's Big Bash league (WBBL) - has been "crazy" and there now more than 200 girls-only teams across the state.
The talent and performances have also skyrocketed with western area alone featuring laying claim to three players with WBBL contracts this season.
Dubbo teenager Emma Hughes joined the Sydney Sixers this season and while didn't get a chance on the field she trained alongside some of the world's best while Bathurst product Lisa Griffith and boom Orange teenager Phoebe Litchfield represented the Sydney Thunder.