Greenvale Kangaroos will become the first Hume-based team to join the Women’s Victorian Premier Cricket competition.
The club will join the competition in the 2022-23 season, starting with second and third XI sides.
They will be the 10th team in the current competition.
The move is massive for the Kangaroos women’s program which only has a short history. They first fielded sides in 2018-19 in two different competitions. In 2019-20 they won two premierships in the Cricket Victoria Community Cricket north-west A competition.
Last season they played in the higher division, the shield division, finishing sixth.
They will continue to play in that competition in the 2021-22 season ahead of the move to premier cricket.
Kangaroos president Bruce Kent said the announcement was a “great reward” for the club.
“As a club we’re pretty thrilled, and quite proud to be invited,” Kent said.
“It’s terrific … It’s just an unbelievably good decision for women in cricket in the north-west of Melbourne.
“The elevation to the Women’s Premier competition will allow our players to play at the top level of club cricket in Victoria and, hopefully, over the next few years to vie for promotion to the Victorian teams.”
Kent said the team will be using the 2021-22 season to prepare for the step up to premier cricket.
“We’ll use the coming summer to our advantage to move in to full premier mode by the end of this summer,” he said.
“We’re very excited… we’ve got a year to strengthen a few things [like] strengthening the coaching system, and we’ll be increasing our teams over the summer.”
Kent said the club’s promotion to the elite level would provide female cricketers from Hume with a pathway to the highest state level.
He said women’s coach, Catherine Morrow, and committee members Carmel Barone and Jill Boundy played an integral part in the club’s promotion.
“They have strived so hard to grow women’s cricket, our junior teams and raise the standard over the last few years.”
