Emerging Ireland Women’s squad named for European Cricket Championship

Emerging Ireland Women are competing in the 2024 European Cricket Women’s Championship at the Cartama Oval in Malaga, Spain for the first time.

The European Cricket Women’s Championship is an annual T10 tournament played by European national teams under the umbrella of the European Cricket Network. The women’s edition of the tournament is in its second year, with the men’s edition having just launched in 2021. England XI Women were last year’s winner of the women’s competition when they beat Netherlands XI Women by 17 runs.

Since 2022, Ireland Academy Men have competed at the tournament with current senior men’s players such as Matthew Humphreys and Gavin Hoey being part of previous teams to have travelled over to Spain. The move to send an Emerging Ireland Women’s team will now mirror that in the women’s development pathway system.

Over the course of five days in December, Emerging Ireland Women will play against England XI Women, Scotland XI Women, Netherlands XI Women, and Italy Women in the Premier Division with the top four teams moving to Finals Day on December 20th when the title will be decided.

Additional info on how to follow can be found here, and all of the games will be shown on the ECN YouTube channel.

SQUAD

Georgina Dempsey (Phoenix) captain, Alana Dalzell (Bready), Abbi Harrison (Waringstown), Jennifer Jackson (Eglinton), Louise Little (Pembroke), Joanna Loughran (Leinster), Sophie MacMahon (Leinster), Niamh MacNulty (Merrion) vice-captain, Lara McBride (The Hills), Kia McCartney (Coleraine), Ellie McGee (Rush), Annabel Squires (Merrion), Alice Tector (Phoenix).

Coaching and support staff; David Scanlon (Head coach), Dom Joyce (Assistant Coach), Julia Webster (Physiotherapist).

FIXTURES

15 December

Emerging Ireland Women v Scotland XI Women (11:30am) – Cartama Oval

16 December

Emerging Ireland Women v Italy Women (9:30am) – Cartama Oval
Emerging Ireland Women v England XI Women (1:45pm) – Cartama Oval

17 December

Emerging Ireland Women v Netherlands XI Women (11:30am) – Cartama Oval
Emerging Ireland Women v Scotland XI Women (3:45pm) – Cartama Oval

18 December

Emerging Ireland Women v England XI Women (11:30am) – Cartama Oval
Emerging Ireland Women v Italy Women (3:45pm) – Cartama Oval

19 December

Emerging Ireland Women v Netherlands XI Women (11:30am) – Cartama Oval

20 December

Finals Day

*time local to ground

David Scanlon, Head Coach of Emerging Ireland Women, said:

“I’m really excited to be heading to the European Cricket Championship T10 for the first time with an Emerging Ireland Women’s squad. We’re going with a really strong group of players, including some from within the Ireland Senior squad and who’ll also potentially feature in the Under-19s World Cup squad. It really shows there is now a depth of talent within women’s cricket here in Ireland.

“Within the squad, we’re very excited to have players that can clear the ropes and score all around the ground which will help us set or chase big scores. We also have all bases covered in the bowling department: spin, seam as well as right and left handers… plus the bowlers have been working very hard on specific game plans for the specific challenge of this competition. I’m also excited to see how our players field as this is something we have been focusing heavily on during our sessions together. It will be a great experience to play a shorter form of the game and really test their skills both with the bat and ball under these conditions in Malaga.”