We caught up with new Glamorgan Women captain Lauren Parfitt ahead of their first-ever game against Sussex Sharks at Sophia Gardens.
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Big day coming up for the Club, Lauren. Firstly, how does feel to be the first-ever captain of Glamorgan Women?
Lauren: Super excited and slightly surreal to be honest. The Media Day, the social content, interviews with media outlets, everything feels very surreal. Walking down the street and being greeted by my next-door neighbour saying how proud they were of my captaincy announcement and how the new era is shaping up, it is so overwhelming. I am so proud of how far cricket has come since I first started playing.
How exciting is to have Rachel Priest to be the new Head Coach of this team going into the professional era? How is this new captain-coach relationship going to be like?
Lauren: Very excited to have her on board. I’d like to think our relationship as captain and coach is as good as it was when we were teammates. She’s approachable, easy to talk to, and her experience and longevity in the game as a player makes the young girls in the team constantly look up to her for advice and help on the cricketing side of things, which is lovely to see for the young girls to have someone like Rachel Priest to talk to about cricket. She's played over 150 professional matches and her ability to understand the game is unbelievable. I'm so excited to have her as a coach!
What are your aims and goals for the season ahead, this being the first-ever full season for many of the players?
Lauren: The aim is to go as high as possible, really. We have got an exciting squad to kickstart this new era, and want to hit the ground running in both sets of competitions. There is obviously a little bit of the unknown in it as well, teams we haven’t played against and also our own players coming in from different counties and setups. But overall very exciting!
There has been a lot of changes this winter with the new programme coming in as we have moved into this new Tier 2 world, can you explain to people how training has looked this winter gone by compared to previous winters?
Lauren: Lots more contact time. Lots more hitting of balls, lots more bowling sessions, lots more fielding workouts. Just generally, lots more opportunities for girls to spend time with the coaches in the indoor school and in the gym. The girls were very pleased with the contact time they have had this winter with coaches, and we want to carry that momentum going into the season.
We have a settled young Welsh talent that are now part of the squad playing on Saturday, but we have also recruited some players from our partner counties in Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, and also from the EPP academy programme. How is this new squad settling in with each other?
Lauren: It’s really nice to have new talent and fresh faces in, and we have spent a lot of time in the winter training together to break that ice and are now ready to hit the ground running as a collective. There is a very positively challenging atmosphere in the squad, and I have seen absolutely no signs of complacency, which is really good. I am really excited to see how set up together on Saturday and over the summer. I think as a collective we cannot wait to start the season this weekend!