EAST KILBRIDE BID FOR CUP DOUBLE ON WOMEN'S T20 FINALS DAY

The showpiece event of the women's domestic season plays out on Saturday at Stirling County CC, as four teams bid to lift the Beyond Boundaries Women's T20 Scottish Cup - with one team looking to secure a memorable cup double.

 

All of the action will be broadcast live on the Cricket Scotland YouTube channel, and East Kilbride head to Stirling with confidence high, after winning the Women’s Challenger Cup in July, defeating Grange in the final.

 

They'll need to perform without skipper Nayma Sheikh, who recently helped Scotland U19 qualify for the ICC U19 Women's T20 World Cup, as she is currently featuring for the senior national team in Netherlands.

 

She's just one of a number of exciting young players coming through the ranks at East Kilbride, as Moon Mughis, Nayma’s mother, explained:  “There was no women’s and girls section at East Kilbride when we joined the club in 2017.  

 

“My daughter Nayma was the only girl playing the under-12 and under-14 league games with boys, so this prompted me to discuss with the club the possibility of having a women’s and girls section.  

 

“During late 2018 we started to approach some of the junior players’ mums and the wives of senior players about our desire to start a women’s cricket team.

 

“Quite a number were up for it so we started to have soft ball sessions and we also started to invite friends and family to those sessions.  

 

“Towards the end of 2019 we had about eight regular players and it was December 2020 when we put a team into the Cricket Scotland indoor soft ball tournament called the Wee Bash for the first time and won it.

 

“We won it again in 2021 and 2022 and our numbers were growing steadily so we decided to step up to hard ball cricket. 

 

“We entered our team into Cricket Scotland’s hard ball Challenger League in 2022 and then in 2023 and things went well.

 

“Over all that time the club had been getting publicity due to Nayma playing for the Scotland under-15, 17 and 19 national squads, especially when the under-19 team qualified for the T20 World Cup in South Africa last year where Nayma performed really well.

 

“That encouraged more young girls to join our club from a range of ethnic backgrounds.

 

“We kept the momentum up by having indoor winter sessions during the period October 2023 to March 2024 and this helped in growing our numbers, meaning that by the start of this summer we had 17 players.

 

Moon is proud of the growth of the section in general, as well as the recent Challenger Cup success when, in the final at Brechin’s Guthrie Park, two wickets apiece from Rebecca McCrossan and Hannah Pollock and 30 not out from Freya Wilcox led the way.

 

 

“As a coach and head of the women’s and Girls section at East Kilbride I am super proud to see where we are now,” Moon said.

 

“We started with mums of different age groups and very young girls and now we have a pool of around 18 to 20 players which is growing all of the time.  

 

“We now have more teenagers because we have established a set up and people now know about East Kilbride and with us being only the second Women’s Premier League team from the west region we have a great future ahead.  

 

“We also have girls being picked for regional squads which is great.

 

“Winning the Challenger Cup is a very big thing for our small club.  It has given us a momentum to promote cricket in the surrounding area, offering people a fun, social and competitive set up where women and girls can develop and practice.”

 

East Kilbride take on holders West of Scotland in one of two semifinals starting at 1100 at New Williamfield. Stewart’s Melville and Carlton will contest the other four last tie at the same time, before the final begins at 1500.

 

 

All three matches will be available to watch via streaming, with the East Kilbride-West of Scotland class, followed by the final, featured with live commentary on the Cricket Scotland YouTube channel.

 

“Our team is a young team not only in age, but also in experience as most of the girls are playing their first ever hard ball season,” Moon admitted.

 

“However, the Challenger Cup win has given the girls the confidence boost that on the finals day they can maybe cause an upset by winning the semi-final and maybe the final. 

 

“They know that the other teams might have stronger players with more experience, but East Kilbride are brave enough to take the challenge.  “And the growth of women’s and girls cricket in general in Scotland is so exciting - you need to see it to believe it. 

 

“The successful qualification for their World Cup from both the senior team and the under-19s has definitely created a buzz. Now Scotland’s youngsters have their own heroes to look up to and to be inspired by. 

 

“With so many opportunities to play now for the younger girls in the shape of under-15s, 18s, the emerging, the under-19s, Scotland A and, ultimately, Scotland, cricket will just continue to grow here.”