By Joe Mansfield.
THE 27-year-old has committed to play for the Cardiff based franchise in the inaugural season of The Hundred.
Women’s cricket in England and Wales has undergone somewhat of a revolution in recent years, the quality of play and coverage of games has steadily increased year on year.
Sophie Luff is hoping that The Hundred accelerates the process by “giving us the platform and visibility that we have been longing for.”
Luff added “The Hundred is going to attract the best players in the world. I want to be playing and challenging myself against the best in the world and the best in our country because I think it can only be a good thing when you are doing that.”
Not only is the standard of play set to be high, but the calibre of the coaches who have been headhunted is also impressive. The Welsh Fire have acquired the services of Australia Women’s Head Coach Matthew Mott.
A coach of Mott’s status will be able to enrich the cricketing knowledge of every player, but particularly the younger members of the team.
So far the squad announced by the Welsh Fire is a young one and the competition will, without doubt, prove to be a great learning experience for them.
Luff called the youthful look to the side “hugely exciting” and picked out Natalie Wraith and Alex Griffiths as bright prospects. She praised the pair that she also plays with at the Western Storm, for their ability to clear the rope and said they have “all the ability in the world.”
As well as being excited for what the competition will do for the game as a whole, the right-handed batter is also excited for what it could do for her own career.
In 2020 Luff scored her maiden century for the Western Storm and is hoping to further reap the rewards of the work she has done to develop her game.
“I’m really excited, I think my game personally has grown massively over the last 18 months. I have really developed some areas and hopefully the shorter format will help me to develop those areas even further.
“Hopefully I have opened up some more scoring areas over the last 18 months or so. It’s an exciting competition where hopefully I will be able to go and show what I can do, batting with a little bit of freedom and a license to play.”
The Welsh Fire franchise has been formed by combining three county clubs in the form of Glamorgan CCC, Gloucestershire CCC and Somerset CCC. This has caused some controversy as the name doesn’t represent the two English counties.
Luff captains her home county of Somerset and acknowledged the word Welsh doesn’t represent the regions well. The bias in the name towards Wales will mean that some “old school” supporters will take umbrage and not buy into the concept.
Despite acknowledging that Somerset and Gloucestershire aren’t represented well by the name, Luff doesn’t feel aggrieved by the name and said it was a fitting title as the team will be based in Cardiff.
