By Nick Creely
Shannon Small has a passion and excitement for female cricket that has seen him make a significant contribution to the game over many years.
He believes strongly in the opportunities and friendships that the game creates women, and wants to continue being an integral part of the sport’s rapid development in the south-east region, especially as sport in general looks to move past Covid-19.
His latest role, as women’s coach of the Narre South Cricket Club in the Cricket Victoria Women’s Community Competition, is a challenge he simply can’t wait to sink his teeth into after working hard with women’s coordinator Gina Smith to build the side and to generate interest.
“I’ve seen how Narre South has gone about it over the last couple of years in terms of their girls program, and it’s been quite impressive from where they started,” he explained.
“I’ve been keeping an eye on that through some of my colleagues at Cricket Victoria, namely Gina (Smith) and it’s been exciting to see that grow.
“And moving back to the area has given me the opportunity to coach the women’s side, and on the opportunity, it’s exciting to see the amount of new teams in the competition this year as well.
“We want to develop girls into becoming the best cricketer they can be and going through the Victorian cricket pathways.
“It’s not just Narre South doing an amazing job, but a number of clubs are putting women’s cricket on the radar, which is a great thing.”
Small has had an impressive career in cricket to date – in 2016, he worked in cricket development in the UK for nine months, before his most recent role at Cricket Victoria as regional cricket manager in Gippsland, where he spent four years.
He has also been involved in coaching at Dandenong from 2017 to 2019, assisting and running the Sophie Molineux Academy, and from a playing perspective has spent time at Northcote and played plenty of cricket with his home club, Knox Gardens.
And through all he has seen in the game so far, women’s cricket has been an element of the sport he believes continues to go to another level year on year.
“Women’s cricket is something I’m extremely passionate about and something that I’ve spent the last five years working full-time in cricket, and the participation levels and the growth is something that excites me,” he said.
“It’s the opportunities that my nieces, my sister and that to be given the same opportunities that the boys get.”
With Covid-19 presenting significant challenges for clubs in recruiting, and even more for clubs looking to kick-start new sides, Small said that the progress of putting together the Narre South side is going well, but urged anyone interested in giving it a go to get in touch with the club.
“The number one thing is spreading the word – anything we can do at the moment to get the word out we’re doing,” he said.
“Cricket’s a bit of a word of mouth sport – cricket is stereotypically boring, but over the last few years the exposure of Twenty20 cricket has shown a different side to the game, and that’s helped get new people into the game.
“Once they come down and have a go, and have a crack at it, we’ve seen that they love it.
“Cricket builds friendships more than any other sport, there’s just something about it – we are excited that it’s something brand new, and it’s the first part of many years to come with women’s cricket at Narre South.
“Covid hasn’t made it easy that’s for sure, but we know sport is going to be a massive release for people in getting back out in the community and socialising in a safe way.”
If anyone is interested in joining the women’s side, they can contact Shannon on 0400 510 593 or Gina Smith on 0420 391 803.
