Scotland captain Kathryn Bryce says it was “pretty surreal” to earn a contract for the 2024 season of the Women’s Premier League in India.
Bryce, who made her international debut aged just 13 and plays her domestic cricket in England for The Blaze and Manchester Originals, was signed by Gujarat Giants for around £10,000.
Bryce, 26, will become only the second woman from an associate nation to play in the WPL after United States’ Tara Norris.
“I had a couple of conversations last summer,” she told BBC Scotland.
“The analyst they have is also the analyst for Manchester Originals’ men’s team, but I hadn’t heard a huge amount since so it was just a waiting game.
“I wasn’t watching the auction. I was driving back from somewhere. One of the girls was on my phone doing the music, and she was like, ‘You’ve just been drafted, you’ve got in’, and then someone called me as well. It was a pretty surreal experience and really exciting.”
The T20 franchise competition is a women’s equivalent of the men’s Indian Premier League, the biggest tournament of its kind in the world.
Bryce believes more opportunities for associate players can only help to grow the game.
“If other teams see that there are associate players that come and do well, hopefully that will encourage them to be more open to drafting associate players in the future, because I think it can be a real benefit to the teams as well as those players,” she added.
“Hopefully I can put in those performances and show them what associate players are able to do.”
Competing in other T20 competitions has allowed Bryce to rub shoulders with some of the game’s biggest stars, but she is relishing the prospect of playing alongside Beth Mooney, Gujarat’s captain and Australian icon, for the first time.
“Yeah, I’ve been pretty lucky [to play with big name players]. I played with Laura Wolvaardt in Manchester this year and Phoebe Litchfield at the FairBreak Invitational last year,” she said.
“So I played with them a bit before, but I’m really excited to play alongside Beth Mooney as well. She’s been a standout player in kind of all formats and all competitions and is such a consistent performer around the world.”
‘The aim is to qualify for the World Cup’
It will also be a big year for Scotland as they gear up for the 2024 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier and a chance to reach the World Cup for the first time.
Bryce starred with bat and ball as Scotland finished first in the European qualifier this year, and is optimistic about her side’s chances in the next stage.
“It’s a really exciting group to be able to lead in,” Bryce added. “I’m seeing a lot of players that have played a lot of cricket really starting to come into their own and put in those performances for Scotland and put their hand up in big moments.
“The aim is to try and qualify for the World Cup. It’s always going to be a challenging ask with the teams that are there, but we’ll take it step by step.
“If we can get into the top two of our group and get into the semi-finals then we’ll take it from there and try to put in as good a performance as possible to give ourselves a chance of winning those games.”
