MEGAN MCCOLL WINTER DIARY: WACA VICTORY, GYM TOURS AND SURFING

After representing Scotland at our first-ever appearance at a Women's T20 World Cup, Megan McColl headed down under for a winter of cricket in Perth, Australia. Below, she tells the story of her time in Western Australia.

 

I’ve been out in Australia for four months now, and this is my first time in Perth, where I’m playing for Subiaco Floreat CC.

 

I spent last winter in Sydney, but coming to Perth was a completely new environment, and I didn’t know anyone here before I came, which was a bit daunting at the start!

 

The girls at the club made it really easy to settle in – they’ve been so welcoming, and the club as a whole is a really social club, right across the men’s, women’s and junior’s section.

 

I’m staying with Jess Emery, the club’s A grade captain, so we’ve spent a lot of time together, and she in particular was great in helping me settle in – all the time spent together off the pitch definitely helps on a Sunday when we’re out in the middle.

 

It’s been really fun to explore Western Australia, and a lot of girls at the club have been my tour guide – I’ve been to Rottnest Island and Moore River which were both really fun and great places to visit.

 

 

Another way I’ve been exploring is by trying to visit every ‘Revo’ gym in Western Australia – myself and Jacqui, a girl at the club, both love going to the gym, so we thought we’d try and visit as many different one’s as possible. We’ve been to 17 out of 30 so far, and that’s taken me to some places I never thought I’d end up going.

 

Of course, being in Australia, I have spent plenty of time exploring the beaches and I’ve been trying to do a bit of surfing as well.

 

Jess’ brothers have been teaching both of us, and it’s a pretty cool thing I can tell people I can do – although I’m not sure I’ll be doing much surfing in Arbroath!

 

 

I’ve also had the opportunity to explore some of Asia whilst I’ve been in this part of the world, although some of that was by accident!

 

When I first got to Australia, I was still using my visa from my time out here last year, and hadn’t got my new one through yet, so I thought I’d just come out, and it would get sorted whilst I was here.

 

Then I got to the end of my old visa, and they were like, ‘you’ve got to leave the country now’, so there was a bit of stress and fear that I was going to have to go back to Scotland after only about two weeks!

 

I called up immigration and they basically said, 'if you leave the country, we’ll grant you your new visa', so I ended up spending three days in Singapore.

 

My visa came through on day two, which was a relief, but I actually really enjoyed the short time I spent in Singapore; it’s somewhere I’d never been, and it was cool to explore somewhere I probably wouldn’t have gone to otherwise.

 

 

Then in January, I went over to Malaysia to watch my sister Kirsty in the Under 19s World Cup.

 

Having been at the World Cup myself and then coming straight out here, it was probably four months since I’d seen Kirsty and my mum and dad, so we thought we’d make a little holiday out of it as it’s not too far from Australia.

 

I think having myself and Kirsty competing at World Cups so close to each other was a really proud moment for our mum and dad, and I was proud seeing her perform so well on that stage as well.

 

She bowled really well, and obviously hit those winning runs to get their win against Nepal, which was pretty good from her, considering she's a great number 11!

 

It was fun to explore Malaysia as well – we’d been over there for the Commonwealth Games qualifiers a few years ago, but COVID restrictions were in place then, so we couldn’t really see much of the country.

 

It was nice to spend some time with my family and do some of the touristy things that we weren't able to do back then, and explore Kuala Lumpur.

 

On the pitch, I feel like it’s been a pretty good season for myself and the team. Before Christmas it was all T20 cricket, and we were able to win the Grand Final.

 

That final was at the WACA, and playing there wasn’t something I ever thought would happen, so to be able to play there and help the team get over the line was incredible. Seeing how much it meant to everyone was really special.

 

 

Since Christmas, the focus has been on 50-over cricket, so I think the scheduling has worked out well, with that competition then leading into the World Cup Qualifier in April.

 

Over the whole season I feel like I've been performing consistently with the bat and the ball across both formats, so it’s been nice to contribute and help the team be successful, and it will also be good going back to Scotland knowing I’ve put in positive performances.

 

I definitely think the work I’ve put in has really helped me gain so much more confidence in my game, and have the confidence that I can score runs and make big contributions with the bat.

 

I’ve been able to train four or five sessions a week, and then play on Sundays, and being able to hit so many balls, and play games without the pressure of international cricket, has really given me that time to work on my game.

 

It’s also made me realise that I don’t have to worry about those extra pressures when I'm representing Scotland, and wherever I'm playing I can just go out and bat with confidence, and back my own ability - that’s probably been one of my biggest learnings.

 

It’s now a really exciting few weeks coming up – we need just one more win to reach the Grand Final in the 50-over competition, and then after that I’ll hopefully be involved in the World Cup Qualifier with Scotland, where we'll be aiming to show how good we are once again, and qualify for another World Cup!