Northern Districts Cricket has seized the initiative to address the lack of girls playing the game with a pilot program, which has the full support of New Zealand Cricket.

Former Bay of Plenty Women's player Tori Horsley, has been contracted by Northern Districts Cricket to deliver an introduction to cricket for girls in the Bay of Plenty.

Tori Horsley.

Tori has been tasked with introducing the program to Year 5&6 along with Intermediate age potential girls players.

Each of the Northern six Districts Associations has appointed a Girls' Cricket Development Officer, with the program to be trailed for a two year period.

ND Women's Development Manager Elaine Nolan said,

'Unlike boys of a similar age, we have found that many young girls never take up bat and ball, because they learn at a different level from boys in a mixed boys and girls environment.”

'The new program aims to draw young girls to cricket by way of a standalone girls' introduction program.”

The new girls' program, will be formulated along the lines of the very successful Have a Go cricket programme, where new recruits will be taught the fundamentals of holding and bat and throwing a ball along with fielding skills.

'Tori has been selected as the Bay of Plenty Girls introductory program deliver, because of her previous cricket background and she relates particularly well with the age group that we have targeted for the pilot program.”

Bay of Plenty Cricket, has a proud reputation as one of the leading cricket nurseries in the country, with Anna Peterson becoming the regions first White Fern, in the series against England last summer.

Tori has hit the ground running with the new Girls cricket initiative and will visit a considerable number of Bay of Plenty Schools, to promote the program during the remainder of term four.

From the first day of the 2013 school year, she will be in action delivering six weekly programmes, to increase the number of young girls playing the game in the Bay of Plenty