Former Australian Test and one-day player Melanie Jones was in Mildura to work with the region’s young female cricketers and promote women’s cricket in Sunraysia.

Women’s cricket continues to grow both on a local and national level and the recently-retired Jones said it was important that country players weren’t left behind.

“The program is run by Cricket Victoria where instead of asking rural kids to come into the city for the elite coaching we get all of our coaches to go out to the country to work with the kids,” Jones said.

“The more we can offer that to players, the easier it will be for them to get into cricket.

“The girls we have here range from girls who are pretty new to the sport to our top level female players in the area.

“Hopefully they all take away a few things and work on their game.”

Jones also spent time working with the Mallee Murray Heat representative squad ahead of the coming country championships.

For more of this story, purchase your copy of Thursday’s Sunraysia Daily 24/09/2009.