Ex England and Staffordshire Laura Newton believes it maybe tough for Staffordshire this season in division two

Ex England and Staffordshire player Laura Newton, believes the Staffordshire Women’s first team will have a tough season ahead of them but have the capabilities to have a successful year.

Newton played for Staffordshire in 2002 and now is Women’s Regional Cricket Development Manager for the West Midlands, which sees her support and challenge counties on their governance and provisions of Women’s and Girls’ cricket.

The 34 year old said: “The structure has changed this coming season with bigger divisions and a focus on every game mattering (no home and away fixtures).

“Staffs will be playing against a number of teams that were in the higher division last season so there will be some tough games.  Counties’ standards improve year on year and if the players have put in the hard work over the winter they should reap the rewards in the summer.”

Staffordshire got promoted into division two last season and will be looking to England international Danni Wyatt and Australian international Ellyse Villani for the experience they will need, but Newton insists it’s not totally down to them.

She continued: “Danni (Wyatt) has the potential to be a match winner every game, with the bat, ball or in the field.  She requires the assistance of her team and will sometimes not come up to her or the team’s expectations, so it is important they all play for each other and take responsibility for their roles.  Elyse, like Danni, has potential to dominate a bowling attack and very early on; she will be able to influence the game on and off the pitch talking to the youngsters.

“When a County squad has international players, there is a danger of placing a huge reliance on those players and they can become pivotal on the team’s performance.  Defining roles is crucial and Danni and Elyse can help the other players develop their own games affecting the team’s performance positively. “

Newton believes that Staffs have moved on in just ten years since she last played for the county and they have adapted with the times.

“The Women’s game has drastically changed over the last few years; T20 has made players innovate with sweeps and paddles and work hard on technique in order to hit the ball harder and in the air,” she explained. “It was still very traditional when I played for Staffs and all players and teams have had to move with the times so progression has definitely been made. “

In her current role Newton over sees a number of counties in the Midlands and is looking to evolve Staffordshire cricket even further.

She said: “Each County is at different stages of maturity therefore my work with each County can be similar but also can be very different.

“To give an example of my work with Staffs, I have presented the National Vision for Women’s and Girls’ cricket to Bob Askey and Leigh Rees and as a result of the document Bob (Askey) and Leigh (Rees) are in the process of setting up groups to tackle areas for development and areas of strength in order to service the needs of the County and continue to move it on.

“We are always looking for examples of ways girls will become or have become involved as it means less time experimenting and more time working on things that work.  There isn’t a fool proof way but the little things matter with girls; for instance handing them a leaflet that has been personalised, gives precise details of training and is attractive in design will help migration.

“The West Midlands Counties are all improving; and that is down to more Clubs offering girls’ cricket and therefore more girls are playing and being coached from an earlier age and more frequently.  I don’t doubt there will be a few gems in the system already and that patience coupled with the elite coaching offered in Staffs will unearth plenty of talented players.”

Staffordshire start their season at home against Wales on the 6^th May.

England all rounder Danielle Wyatt looking to be unbeaten in New Zealand

England and Staffordshire all rounder Danielle Wyatt admits that defeat on the tour of New Zealand would mean failure.

Wyatt is part of England’s 15 woman squad for the trip to New Zealand this month, which consists of five Twenty20s and three ODIs and the 20 year old says the side are going there to win every game and make a statement to the world ahead of the World Twenty20 in September.

She said: “We had a team meeting and Charlotte (Edwards) said our aim is to win every game and if we lose one game we will come back very disappointed.

“We shouldn’t be losing to New Zealand with the team we have now. The squad is really strong and there is now competition for places with everybody willing to play. So we will go to win every game and start to build momentum to take into the World cup.”

With confidence high in the squad, they are looking be aggressive and take the attack to the White Ferns who are under the new captaincy of Suzie Bates.

Wyatt continued: “In team meetings we talk about being brave and showing intent with the bat upfront and make use of the powerplays, this also means that Edwards can play her own game.

“Some of their players have retired, which means fresh faces in the squad who I don’t know a lot about, but they have a strong team who can get on top of you.

“They’ve got some good batters at the top of the order so we will have to strike early and get them out pretty cheaply, but they won’t be full of confidence as they have just lost a series against Australia 4-1”

Personally for Wyatt it presents a chance to secure a place in the side ahead of an action packed 15 months for England.

She said: “We’ve got three warm up games in New Zealand before the Twenty20s so I hope to play in them and then play in the first Twenty20.

“I’ve got to make sure I perform in New Zealand, make sure I’m fit and keep performing for Staffs.

“I feel I have improved my game in all three departments after my time in Australia and hopefully I can take this onto the international scene.”

Wyatt spent the winter playing for Victoria where she helped them win the twenty20 competition for the third time running, claiming player of the match in the final, hitting 39 from 38 balls.

The 20 year old said: “I really enjoyed my time there and it was a huge achievement for the team and me. For an English player to win player of the match in an Australian final is something to be proud of.

“I’m feeling really confident now going to New Zealand after my time in Australia.

“It’s a big tour for us, if we win every game the world will be scared of us.”

Staffs women looking for an inspirational season 2011

The sound of beep bop music reverberating around the indoor centre marks the start of the new cricket season for Staffordshire’s women’s cricket team.

After a winter of reconstruction in the managerial side and a combination of fitness training, technical coaching and tactical drills for the players, they are full of confidence to play ‘tough, hard cricket’ and are raring to go to try to fulfil the two aims of their new coach Chris Guest. These are to win promotion at the third attempt and to ‘play with a smile on their face.’

He said: “Our goal is about being promoted, that is our aim this season.”

Staffordshire missed out again on promotion out of the Women’s County Championship division 3 by 0.19 point at the hands of Wales last year. The last two games were very costly, losing them both and the last one especially so; failing to chase down Wales’ modest target of 76, collapsing to 55.

Even though Guest, who has worked with the men’s England head coach Andy Flower, has only seen the players in preseason despite no new additions to the squad, he has full confidence in them achieving promotion this season.

Guest continued: “With the players at our disposal, with the experience they have and the training we have done through the winter it’s a realistic goal and one I think we can achieve, if we go well and stick to the game plan.”

Guest has had to find a new captain for this season as Georgia Elwiss has moved to Sussex in an attempt to relight her England career. He has chosen Kate Dicken who has plenty of experience behind her, captaining England’s indoor team and he hopes she ‘leads from the front.’

Dicken has an idea about what the game plan is for the forthcoming season: “We have a strong squad, and throughout the winter we have worked hard on more specific things so hopefully we can apply that. It’s really about batting in partnerships. That is where we fell short last season and it’s where we are looking to improve.”

She doesn’t believe that too much emphasis should be put on the fact that they have lost their captain and opening bowler.

Dicken said: “It is a big loss, she’s a good player, opened the bowling and was captain but the rest of us will just have to step up to the plate. She’s gone on to bigger and better things.”

The loss of Elwiss and Overseas professional and New Zealand wicketkeeper Rachel Priest has led Guest and coaching staff Leigh Rees and Bob Askey to look at this season as being one to rebuild and be a learning curve for the girls. Last season there was a thought that there was too much responsibility on Priest and England all rounder Danielle Wyatt. Between them they hit 50.3% of the runs.

Rees said: “A problem with having players like Danielle and Rachel is that you can become over reliant on them.

“Last year on the batting side we did become over dependent on Danielle and Rachel. Nobody hit more than 50 in a game other than those two, there were just little cameos. For the run scoring we were relying on them.”

They haven’t been able to replace Priest, but there are a few on the radar. However Rees doesn’t see it has a huge inconvenience to achieve promotion.

He continued: “I don’t think it will be a bad thing and would be quite character building for the squad to stick with what we have got. They will have to take responsibility this season as we won’t be able to rely on Danielle being there every week because she is in the England squad. I think it will help the players to evolve and become better players.”

However they are looking to Wyatt to lead from the front with the bat from her experience at the highest level. Guest said: “Of course we are hoping that Danni’s experience will help she’s played at the highest level, but we can’t just look to her.”

Not only are the girls hoping to have a strong season in the County Championship but also in the Tweny20 competition. This year they will be competing in the Midlands and North division 1 after they won the second division last year on net run rate. Staffs will be facing County Championship division 1 outfits Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire, and second division Warwickshire.

Rees knows it will be tough for the girls saying: “Even though we didn’t get promoted last year in the County Championship, we won our Twenty20 group easily. Now we have got play against teams like Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire, all are good teams and it will be very hard and be a good test, but we will look to compete with them and do well.”

Staffs have got a long summer ahead, but there’s one thing that is on the coaching staff and player’s minds. Promotion, and they will do anything to achieve this.