Women's Rapids
By Chathura Pinnawala
For Thea Brookes, Cricket was always a home away from home. When she picked up a bat at the tender age of four, it wasn’t just for fun. Her roots (her grandfather was the chairman of her first club) and the sporting background her parents provided meant that she was taking it up with a sense of seriousness about it.
Brookes, now 23, has an impressive resume to look back in a short period at the top which includes a England U17 tour to South Africa as part of the Developmental and it will be boosted even further soon as she’s been signed up by Loughborough Lightning for the first-ever Super League, the only Worcestershire player to do so. “It’s a huge deal for me. To be able to play with greats like Ellyse Perry and Sophie Devine will be a dream come true. It’s something I really look forward to. I was brought up as a baby around a cricket club, so to be playing at a quite a high level now is fantastic. It’s something I’m quite proud of.”
That followed up after a period of good form, having struggled last year with the bat. Brookes had worked a lot during the winter after that wake-up call and after hitting a half century for Pershore, she went big and scored a century which took Worcestershire to a commanding win over Leicestershire in ECB Division Two County Championship. “Yeah, I have come quite strong this year. I started off pretty rusty, didn’t score many runs. But that half century for Pershore rediscovered my touch.”
Brookes’ mom played Basketball and Hockey at a high level while her father was into Rugby and Cricket so it wasn’t a surprise that she was good at another Sport. Her Netball career blossomed during her university years and it was heart-breaking to give it up she recalls.
”Unfortunately, I don’t play Netball at the minute. Matches clash with work and there’s a high demand for cricket. I played a lot of Netball for university and club level. So it was a bit of a heartbreak to give up. But it just came to a point where you had to choose between Cricket and Netball.”
A holder of a Physical Education and Sports Studies degree, she says bringing back the old glories of Worcestershire Women’s Cricket is her and the rest of the team’s priority. “Worcester has fluctuated a lot. It used to be the team, then it kind of went through a stage where few older players came in, not saying it was bad but it kind of dropped the standard a little bit. Now we are under different management and coaches so we are on the way back.”
She doesn’t look back fondly towards the time after she toured South Africa with England though. She feels she was let down by the ECB who never let her know why she was omitted from the plans since then.
She says, “It was great fun. That’s the high standard I have played. I felt I was good, that I needed to back myself a bit more. But as I got older, they completely cut contacts with me. I thought it was bit unprofessional from them. They could have atleast said why and what I can do to get better so that I can get to the next step. I felt really let down but that’s behind me now.”
The healing of those wounds must have been helped by her desire to look up to different levels of players for inspiration. “I love Jos Buttler because he’s agricultural, and I love Ian Bell for his technical ability. In bowling, I love Swanny (Greame Swann). Some of the women’s cricketers I follow are my friends actually. I had a friend at university, she tore her ACL and returned even stronger. I look up to her as much as I do with stars of the game. That’s inspiring.”
If she keeps performing as she is now, it may not be too long before England selectors eyes turns towards her again.