Georgia Elwiss: England star talks Women's Sport Week and prepares for the West Indies
Saturday 9 December 2017 10:44, UK
England Women's Georgia Elwiss talks Women's Sport Week, praises Team GB's Olympic gold medal winning Women's Hockey team, and prepares for a series with the West Indies in the Caribbean...
Hello from Jamaica! I'm so excited to be blogging for Sky Sports during our tour to the West Indies - I'm really looking forward to giving you all an insight into our tour life and our experiences over the next few weeks here in the Caribbean.
This tour has started like no other that I have ever experienced, with Hurricane Matthew due to hit the Island today. Reading all the weather and news reports it is quite unnerving, and there is a lot of uncertainty still around how hard the storm will hit the area of Montego Bay where we are currently based.
But we are being really well looked after by the staff in the hotel where we are staying, and I know that our management team is in regular contact with the West Indies and Jamaica Cricket Board. The main thing is everyone's safety - it is a worrying time for the Jamaican population, and we all hope that the local community stays safe over the next couple of days.
Back home I know you are all celebrating the beginning of Women's Sport Week today! Following the success of first ever Women's Sport Week last year, it's brilliant that it is back again, giving us all an opportunity to shine a spotlight on and celebrate everything that is great about women's sport.
When I was growing up I couldn't have dreamt that I'd be here in the West Indies being paid to play international cricket. The introduction of our professional contracts nearly two years ago now was a game changer for the England women's cricket team, which was followed by standalone commercial sponsorship deals with Kia and Bang & Olfusen, and most recently the huge success of the inaugural Kia Super League this summer.
It has all help make women's cricket in this country a viable career option for girls, and it must be a fantastic time to be a young girl growing up now. There are just so many inspiring role models across so many sports to admire - women who play with such passion and determination to succeed.
I couldn't help but get swept up in the recent Olympic wave, and be inspired myself by the way all of our athletes performed. The GB women's hockey team in particular were incredible in Rio. What they have achieved for their sport on the biggest of all the global stages is amazing, and it is something that we hope to emulate when we host the ICC Women's World Cup in England next summer.
The next three years represents an unprecedented period for women's team sports in England, as following the our World Cup next year, England will host the 2018 Women's Hockey World Cup and then the 2019 Netball World Cup.
To mark this unique moment in time, it is brilliant news that the ECB, England Hockey and England Netball have today launched "TeamUp", a three-year campaign to hopefully maximise this opportunity.
In addition to promoting all three tournaments and encouraging women and girls to support each event, the TeamUp initiative has an ambitious target to ensure that all seven to 13 year-old girls across the country have the opportunity to experience the benefits of team sport, and includes a novel rewards scheme for schools and teachers.
But back to the here and now - our first job is to qualify for the World Cup next summer, and to do that we need to have a good series against a talented West Indian team on their home patch. Our final three matches of this five match series count towards our qualification campaign, so we will be looking to put in some big performances over the next few weeks to get some more points on the board in the ICC Women's Championship.
Bring it on!
England's Women face West Indies Women in the first ODI of five, in Jamaica on Saturday, October 8.
