Caoimhe Bray got not one, but two call ups on the final night of the Cricket Australia Female U19s National Championships.
Having wrapped up what she confessed was a pretty average competition for her in Perth, she was excited to learn she had been selected for the Australian side that will contest the 2025 ICC U19 Women’s T20 World Cup in January, as well as receiving cap number 274 for the NSW Breakers.
“I feel like I haven’t had much down time for the past two or three months because cricket has just been really cricketing this season,” she said with a laugh when catching up about recent events.
“I guess from the cricket over the past few months that I’ve been doing, that probably helped me get the selection into the Aussie camp.
“It’s so exciting, I got to do it early this year in September and I had the best time of my life. It was the most fun I’ve ever had and, but now, when I get to say I’m going to a World Cup, it sounds crazy to say.”
Caoimhe has played with all but one of her teammates for the tournament that will be in Malaysia from January 18 to February 2, with Australia in Group D for the pool matches taking on Bangladesh, Scotland and the Asian qualifier that is yet to be confirmed.
The other call that the 15-year-old got on her final night in Perth was from Leah Poulton, Cricket NSW Head of Female Elite Cricket, telling her she had been selected for the NSW Breakers.
“It was such a big opportunity, and it was really, really unexpected, came out of blue,” Caoimhe told The Hunter River Times.
So from Perth the Bray family made their way to Hobart for two NSW Breakers games, playing the Tasmanian Tigers Women on Saturday and again on Monday.
“I didn’t get to bat that game, but we got the runs in the end so that was all right, and then second game came around and I ended up getting three wickets, but my quad got a bit tight, so I had to go off,” she recalled.
Humble in her success in the second game, because she believed it wasn’t her best work, it is still worth noting that Caoimhe was the Breakers opening bowler and took out three of the top Tasmanian bowlers, one of whom didn’t get any runs on the board.
When looking back at the year that has seen Caoimhe and her parents, Kim and Gavin, make the move from Denman to Newcastle so the teenager can pursue opportunities in both soccer with the Newcastle Jets development side and her many cricket ventures, there are two main highlights.
The first being getting to go to Bali for the Asian Cup for soccer, and the second is getting to not only meet but get to play alongside some of her cricketing idols in the Sydney Sixers.
When broached the question of whether she is ready to make a call on which code to focus on yet, the summer winter split is still going to work in her favour.
“I’m definitely still going to be trying to juggle both, I think it’s just going to be a thing where I just try to do both for as long as I can,” Caoimhe said.
“I hope to be doing that until it comes to a point where maybe someone says you’ve got to choose now, or maybe it just gets to a point when you can just tell it becomes time, but I’m going to be trying to do it for as long as I can.”
For now, the Bray family will have a bit of down time at home until they pull out their passports once again in January.
JEM ANSHAW
