Perth Scorchers and WA Cricket working with Indonesia’s national teams as part of deal between associations

WA Cricket hopes an expanding partnership with Indonesia could mean more players from the southeast Asian nation head to Perth to play cricket. Eleven WA and Perth Scorchers staff members — including head coaches Adam Voges and Becky Grundy — travelled to Bali last month to work with the country’s top men’s and women’s players. It is part of a memorandum of understanding signed between WA and the Indonesian Cricket Association last year, prompted by the International Cricket Council three years ago in a bid to grow the game in the developing nation. As part of the deal, WA are providing support as Indonesia makes significant upgrades to its national centre for the sport. The national is ranked 20th in the world for women’s cricket, but 68th for men’s. Perth Scorchers’ WBBL team last season signed Ni Made Putri Suwandewi — known as Tori — on a rookie deal. The agreement includes high-performance support, athlete development, coach development and facility development. “Growing an associate nation and Indonesia being a strong tourism and trade partner, it sort of came about from them trying to do their job, which is help grow the game and use our resources to try and do it,” WA Cricket general manager of high performance Kade Harvey said. “We sort of framed it up as an education week, but it was really just a chance to build a relationship with Indonesia Cricket more and support them where we can in developing their high-performance teams. “We’re trying to help support the growth of an associate nation to help the game get stronger internationally and I think that’s a nice thing for us to be able to do. “We were really impressed with the level of talent and passion and energy and love for the game. “It is about how can we help them be more competitive and play a higher level of cricket.” ICA is developing a new facility three hours north of Denpasar, which is set to include the country’s first turf training wickets. Harvey said the arrangement could expand to involve Indonesia’s best players heading to Australia to play Premier Cricket. “The opportunity are endless really in terms of how you support them,” he said. “I think Tori settled in really well, she really loved the experience. “I think it shines a light on the pathway for those players to come through, to see a player come down and be part of one of the premier domestic tournaments in the world. I think it can only help inspire the next generation of players. “We will look to keep expanding on that, whether there is opportunities for their players to play Premier Cricket here, we’d certainly be open to supporting that through the Premier Cricket system. “It’s early stages but the week was very helpful and hopefully, seeing players like Tori in the tournament, help from a pathway perspective.”

Perth Scorchers and WA Cricket working with Indonesia’s national teams as part of deal between associations

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