While a World Cup is always a time for the stars of the future to learn from their heroes, whether it is watching on television or attending matches in person, few have been as lucky as Ema Kuribayashi in getting as close to the world’s best players such as Haidee Tiffen, Aimee Mason and Nicola Browne. Ema, the Japanese women’s captain, has been in Australia for the past week, as part of an ICC East-Asia Pacific (EAP) initiative aimed at providing an opportunity for some of the leading players in the region to experience first hand what it takes to make it to the top of the women’s game. Four players, two from Japan and two from Papua New Guinea, have had the chance to follow the Australia and New Zealand teams, sit in on analyst sessions, participate in training sessions and even carry drinks for players into the middle in practice matches, as part of a unique, education initiative. Charlie Burke, part of the ICC Development team within the EAP region, believes this is an important learning opportunity for players from cricket’s emerging nations. “It is a chance to see what it takes to be one of the best eight countries in the world and hopefully they can go back to their member countries and work with their national players as well and pass on what level of commitment is required,” said Burke. “It also creates awareness amongst the Australia and New Zealand teams that there is a lot more women’s teams rather than just the eight sides playing at the World Cup.” At present, 78 of the ICC’s 104 Members have some recognised form of women’s cricket, but it is a challenge for some of the girls to play regularly, with some of the Japanese players facing 3 hours of travelling time just to get to and from training. “We have a senior league but only get to play five games in a year and with university and senior teams we have 10 teams in total,” said Kuribayashi, whose national team is coached by former New Zealand World Cup winner Katrina Keenan. All four players on the programme have been given a first-hand lesson in what it takes to be one of the leading stars in world cricket and Ema admits she has learnt a lot. “The players are very fit and they have very good basic skills,” said Kuribayashi. " I batted against Sophie (Devine) and batted with Beth (McNeill) and got to practice in the fielding sessions as well. “Sophie has very good pace and outswing – that is something that Japanese players aren’t used to so I was very impressed.” And what is the main strategy she has picked up upon this week that she wants to take back to Japan? “The New Zealand team focus on bowling dot balls and I learnt that six dot balls is not enough to create wickets. They focus on 10 dot balls and I will tell the players that ten dot balls are very important,” she said. Kuribayashi, who has also had the opportunity to play some club cricket in New Zealand, dreams of playing in the World Cup and Burke believes that this could one day become a reality – perhaps even as early as 2013. “For Japan’s men team to make it to the World Cup from Division 7 then they have some very large steps to take, while we are lucky enough to have a team that qualifies straight into the Women’s World Cup Qualifier, so if Japan and Papua New Guinea can be well supported they are one step away from being in the World Cup,” said Burke. “One of the biggest goals for our region is to get a country in the World Cup, whether it is women’s or men’s.” And with television coverage of the event going out to more than 200 countries worldwide, hopefully the ICC Women’s World Cup will inspire many more girls across the globe to play the sport
Source - iccwomensworldcup.yahoo.net