Jersey boss sets professional aim for women players

Jersey are ranked 29th in the world at T20 cricket

Jersey women's head coach Darren Thomas says his ambition is to produce a player capable of playing professionally in England.

The former Glamorgan all-rounder took charge of the island's women side earlier this year.

Jersey were one win away from progressing to the next stage of qualifying for this year's T20 World Cup last summer.

"The vision is obviously to take the women higher up the rankings, up to the top 15 potentially," Thomas told BBC Radio Jersey's Sport Matters podcast.

"Another vision will be to produce a player to come off the island to move into professional cricket.

"I think we've got a couple of girls who potentially could do that on the island."

Jersey's women still play relatively few matches compared to the men's side, and Thomas is keen to close that gap.

He feels that playing against the island's under-16 men's side and academy teams is a good step, as well as playing in men's club matches.

"If you implement more exposure to them, they're going to thrive and become better quickly," Thomas said.

"That's where I currently see it, so if we can expose them a little bit more on the island to those cricketing games, and then we go on our tours, that's going to benefit them because our game exposure is so crucial.

"I know some of the women play club cricket at the weekend, and they're doing relatively well currently, so hopefully we can get more of them playing more club cricket."