On August 27th, the Monash Gryphons Cricket team came out victorious against Mernda United in the Inaugural Mid Year Cricket Association Women’s competition. This makes it the first ever women’s MYCA premiership attained by the Monash Cricket Club and the third MYCA premiership won overall by the university. To discuss this historic win, we spoke to the Captain of the Monash Gryphons Women’s team, Sajani Wijekoon to learn more about the Women’s cricket team and how the MYCA competition went.

Congratulations on your win! How did the Mid-Year Cricket Association Women’s Competition go this year?

This was the first year that the Mid Year Cricket Association had a Women’s Competition.  It was a learning experience for all the teams with the 8:30am start times and getting used to the wet ground conditions. Additionally, we used the winter season to develop our skills and players for the summer season. This eventuated to everyone improving collectively and we went undefeated the entire competition. It was good to see other female teams and players just as eager as we were to continue playing this sport in the winter and get as much experience as possible.

That’s good to hear! What were the scores against Mernda United Cricket Club? 

It was a very close game, that came down to the last over but the final scores were Monash 8/68 off our 20 overs, and Mernda 8/60 off their 20 overs. It was a low scoring game as the ground was quite damp and had some grass shavings left on it so hitting boundaries was rare during the game. We batted first and were hoping to score at least 100, however the ground conditions made that quite hard. We ended up revising our score to 70 which we fell 2 runs short of. Our team dug deep and fought hard to defend a low total of 68 against a powerful Mernda side. 

What is the training regime like for the Monash Women’s team?

Training was the most fun aspect of the Winter Season this year. We were very lucky as one of our teammates has their own Cricket Nets! We would train weekly or bi-weekly depending on if we had a game. For our summer season, we train at Monash Uni (Frearson Oval) on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. We’re lucky enough for the University to provide us access to training nets and a centre wicket pitch which we use for various batting, bowling and fielding skills training.

Are there any other tournaments the Women’s team will be competing in the near future?

This year we will be entering and competing in two competitions. Our first team will remain in Cricket Victoria’s top Shield grade in the WCCC (Women’s Community Cricket Competition). Our second team will be entering in the Ringwood and District Cricket Association Women’s competition. We are also hoping to start a Social Sixes program at the Uni for students to participate in.

Finally, what does the team do together for fun

We often hang out together after training so lunch/dinner is always a must after our games! We also have heaps of fun social events our club holds (cricket game viewing events, movie nights etc.) it’s always great to hang out with people from the club in a non-cricket environment.

We wish Sajani and the Monash University Gryphons Women’s Cricket team the best of luck in their future endeavours and competitions! 

With over 200 active members, the Monash Gryphons Cricket Club has male and female teams competing in the Mercantile Cricket Association, Women's Community Competition, Eastern Cricket Association and Mid-Year Cricket, with their top sides playing on turf pitches during the summer.

If you’re interested in supporting this wonderful community, you can follow them on Instagram and Facebook. 

Written by Mon Ouk