Lend Lease Breaker, Angela Reakes
Delly Carr / Sportshoot
It’s not long now until Lend Lease Breakers’ leg-spinner, Angela Reakes, heads to New Zealand as co-captain of the Australian U/21 team, the Commonwealth Bank Shooting Stars.
www.cricketnsw.com recently caught up with the former NSW U/17 skipper to find out about her feelings on returning to a leadership role, working with Shooting Stars coach Belinda Clark and graduating from university!
Are you excited about being named co-captain of the Shooting Stars? Is leadership a role that you enjoy?
It's an absolute honour, and to be completely honest, I was shocked when I was first told. I have thoroughly enjoyed captaining the Sydney Tigers in First Grade this year and can’t wait to learn more about the game.
Former NSW and Australian captain, Belinda Clark, has been named Coach of the Shooting Stars. Have you had much to do with Belinda before this?
Growing up in Knockrow (on the NSW North Coast), where women's cricket did not exist, meant I never heard much about the women’s game. However, I definitely knew who Belinda Clark was as she was one of the only women to feature in the magazines we received at Emerging Blues training.
I am looking forward to learning from her experience and developing my game further.
Do you know much about your Shooting Stars team mates from interstate?
I have seen a lot of the girls playing National League and have grown up competing against them in Youth competitions as well.
Other than that, we have probably only ever exchanged water bombs at Youth tournaments!
You’ve just finished your third season with the Lend Lease Breakers – how do you rate your progress over the years?
It's been quite a hard task juggling university, work and cricket over the last few years – and that was a learning experience in itself!
As a leg spinner, working with some of the best players of the game has been a huge advantage for my cricket, however, I think there's still a lot of improvement to come.
Fortunately time is on my side and I am hoping I can rid the full toss from my repertoire!
What areas of your game are you looking to improve on in the coming seasons?
Without giving away too many secrets, I think it is essential to have good variation as well as a good stock ball for T20s as spinners are now dominating the game.
And as the last two T20 finals have shown, I think I need to start learning how to hit sixes late in an innings or get pushed up the batting order!
You’ve mentioned that you were looking forward to seeing Shane Warne bowl again in the KFC T20 Big Bash League.
Did you watch a lot of his matches and did you learn anything from it? Was Warne the person who got you interested in bowling leg-spin?
Thanks to Cricket Australia's iPhone app I was lucky enough to watch all the Big Bash games.
I learnt a lot from watching Shane Warne, Brad Hogg and Stuart MacGill and I have also been fortunate enough to work with Stuart MacGill so it was great to watch him demonstrate everything he has taught me (and succeed!).
I started bowling leg-spin because my Dad sat me down after taking 4-5 and 5-4 while bowling pace at a Country Championship when I was 16 and said “It will never get any better than this - you should start bowling spin.”
So as every 16-year-old does, I did as I was told!
I hear you’ve just graduated university. What are you doing with yourself now and how does it feel to have it out of the way?
I am lucky enough to have completed a Bachelor of Human Movement and was only accredited as an Exercise Scientist/Exercise Physiologist last week.
On top of that, I have just started full time work at South Sydney Sports Medicine and started my own business to work with my cerebral palsy client.
Click here to find out more about Angela’s work with her cerebral palsy patient, Lia on YouTube.
It is scary growing up, but one of the best feelings in the world when you know that you don't have to go home and study!