A post from Aisling Lawlor who is currently in South Africa training and playing cricket.
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I arrived in Johannesburg at the start of January, where the weather was much nicer than home and more importantly people were playing cricket! I had a lovely welcome from the Manack family, with friendly faces and a lot of amazing food. From day 1 we got straight into the cricket, if I wasn’t training, I was watching cricket. The house is like a little cricket academy, with a net in the garden and the constant sounds of the bowling machine firing balls. So far I have played 3 matches; a men’s match, a friendly match and women’s premier league match. It has been amazing to put all the work over the winter into the matches before the Irish summer.
I am very grateful to the Manacks for making me feel so much at home. Sessions with Hussein are really developing my cricket, especially T20, as I am learning a lot of new shots to expand my scoring options. Salma is always making sure I am as comfortable as possible and her food is something to look forward to every day.
It’s a great opportunity to play alongside Razeena as she has a lot of knowledge for the game and she treats me like a younger sister. I am very lucky to be staying with such a great family and
coming here has been an amazing experience so far. All the girls on the women’s team have been so friendly and it’s been great to make new friends – they even sang Ireland’s Call when I got my first wicket. It’s been great learning about how different South Africa is and about the different cultures. I am extremely grateful for this experience and I can’t wait to bring back all I have learned to Dublin.
Aisling Lawlor