Former Australian women cricketer Alex Blackwell has been appointed as the coach of Women’s Cricket Super League (WCSL) team Lancashire Thunder.
The 34-year-old former Australian right-handed batter Alex Blackwell played 12 Women’s Tests, 144 Women’s ODIs and 95 Women’s T20Is where she scored total 5,250 runs (444 in Women’s Tests, 3,492 runs in Women’s ODIs and 1,314 runs in Women’s T20Is). She made her international cricket debut in 2003 and carried till November 2017.
In her 15-year long international career, she won two ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup (2005 and 2013) and three Women’s World T20 titles.
Now, she has been appointed as the coach Lancashire Thunder. Lancashire Thunder is the one of teams of WCSL (known as Kia Super League), a semi-professional women’s cricket competition in England and Wales. While the tournament has begun since 2016, Lancashire Thunder finished at the bottom place in the first two seasons of that competition.
While the 2018 season will begin on July 22, Blackwell is very excited to begin her new journey.
She told Lancashire County’s website, “I am excited to work with local up and coming cricketers, in addition to some of the world’s best, as coach of Lancashire Thunder in the Kia Super League this year. After recently retiring from a 15-year international cricket career, I’m keen to get into coaching and I am thrilled to be given an opportunity to coach in one of the world’s premier T20 competitions.”
In the inaugural Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) in 2015/16 season, Blackwell had led the Sydney Thunder side who had won the crown in that edition. She said that her inaugural WBBL winning experience as captain will help the English side for the upcoming season.
She quoted, “My experience as captain of the inaugural Women’s Big Bash League winning Sydney Thunder team, has given me great insight into what it takes to win a T20 tournament. I look forward to assisting each of the Lancashire Thunder squad members to enjoy the Kia Super League and reach new heights both individually and as a squad”
Lancashire Thunder’s general manager Bobby Cross highly confident on Blackwell’s ability.
He said on that, “Alex is a proven winner and she has had a remarkable playing career. Aside from her ability with the bat, she is renowned for the way in which she thinks about the game and for the strength of her beliefs. After speaking at length with her about Lancashire Thunder I am confident she will be a huge asset to our team.
“With the Kia Super League expanding to a longer tournament this year, and following two disappointing campaigns, both myself and Lancashire’s Director of Cricket Paul Allott, were keen to bring in somebody who we feel can work alongside our coaching staff and help a talented group of players to perform on the field. Alex fits the bill perfectly and we are very excited to have her with us.”
