Poulton joins CA coaching ranks

Former Australian batter Leah Poulton will oversee the development of the country’s best up-and-coming female cricketers after being appointed as a Cricket Australia high performance coach.

Poulton will take over the female program role currently held by former Australian head coach Cathryn Fitzpatrick, while she will also be in charge of the Australia ‘A’ women’s squad, the inaugural female National Performance Squad, as well as the under-15 and under-18 programs.

Quick single: No room for complacency at World Cup: Mott

The 33-year-old, who last represented the Southern Stars in 2012, played 90 matches for Australia and more than 100 domestic matches for New South Wales.

After retiring at the end of the 2014-15 season, Poulton made the move into coaching as the Cricket NSW Female Pathway Manager before stepping into an assistant coaching role with the Lendlease Breakers in the Women’s National Cricket League and the Sydney Thunder in the Rebel WBBL.

Poulton, who will relocate from NSW to the Bupa National Cricket Centre in Brisbane for the new position, said the growth of the women’s game had led to the demand of additional coaching resources at a youth level.

"Cathryn Fitzpatrick was in this role before me on a part-time basis and I think it was inevitable that it would turn full time, because it is such an important space and there are so many great things happening in the female pathway,” she said.

"Australia’s had such a great history and that doesn’t happen by accident, we have to put a lot of work into our pathway to help cultivate those emerging players.

"It’s not a case of creating them, the talent is there and it’s about creating the right environments where they can thrive."

Image Id: EF353C01647044A1A1A8759BB255E85E Image Caption: Poulton had an impressive career for Australia and NSW // Getty

Poulton recently returned from a study trip to the United States with fellow state and Rebel WBBL coaches Julia Price, Lisa Keightley and Shelley Nitschke.

"We went over there and explored a lot of high performance environments, looking at the way they did things," she said.

"It’s always great to learn from different areas, there’s lots of synergies between sport and business.

"It was excellent to hear their take on things and to see if they’re doing things a little bit differently and what we can learn from them."

Women's World Cup 2017 Guide

Australia World Cup squad: Sarah Aley, Kristen Beams, Alex Blackwell (vc), Nicole Bolton, Ashleigh Gardner, Rachael Haynes, Alyssa Healy, Jess Jonassen, Meg Lanning (c), Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Belinda Vakarewa, Elyse Villani, Amanda-Jade Wellington

Squads: Every World Cup squad named so far

Australia's World Cup schedule

View the full tournament schedule here

Warm-up matches

June 20: Australia v South Africa, Oakham

June 22: Australia v Pakistan, Leicester

Tournament

June 26: Australia v West Indies, Taunton

June 29: Australia v Sri Lanka, Bristol

July 2: Australia v New Zealand, Bristol

July 5: Australia v Pakistan, Leicester

July 9: Australia v England, Bristol

July 12: Australia v India, Bristol

July 15: Australia v South Africa, Taunton

July 18: First semi-final, Bristol

July 20: Second semi-final, Derby

July 23: Final, Lord's