COVERED SPRING 2021

29 @TRENTBRIDGE LUCY HIGHAM “I did Sports & Exercise Science as my undergraduate course and am currently studying Strength & Conditioning as my Masters. “It does come in handy though when you’re given a horrible running session to do and you have a better understanding of why you’re doing it.” Growing up in Leicestershire, Higham’s ambitions were lofty, with plans to go to America on a football scholarship eventually giving way to a desire to play cricket professionally. If the latter sounds vaguer than the former, then that’s because it is. In the 23-year-old’s formative years in the game, the women’s setup had the air of an exclusive club. With the backing of her own sports- centric parents (“they were just happy I was choosing a summer sport and they wouldn’t have to stand out in the cold at football”), Higham was still unsure what cricket could offer her. “Looking back at it, striving for one of 15 full-time contracts isn’t really a great career prospect,” she says. “I had played rounders but then I was in- vited by a friend to play a game of cricket in the park and I never looked back. “It was recommended that I go down to the City Cricket Academy (CCA) and my parents battled rush hour traffic, in the middle of Leicester, to drop me off. “I was eventually put forward for county trials, armed with my straight breaks and sweeps – my favourite shot as I am short in stature – and it took off from there. “I was fortunate that one of my coaches at CCA was in charge of cricket at Leicester Grammar school, where I had just moved.” Armed with irrepressible enthusiasm and an innate desire to test herself against the cream of the crop, Higham’s cricket journey would soon arrive in Nottinghamshire. Those qualities, much-heralded in a team sport made up of individual performers, can be traced back to her birth, when she entered the world alongside twin sister Emily. Despite being cut from different cloths (“she works in politics in London, she’s very intelligent”), the competitive sibling rivalry is constantly bubbling under surface. “My parents have got one smart and one sporty twin so it works quite well,” says Higham. “The only sporting memory I have with my sister is playing against her in one game of football. “She was in net and I was up front and I accidentally booted the ball directly into her face. “I don’t think she played another game after that. “She’s not very sporty but we’re competitive in every other way.” As the sisters followed their own paths, except that solitary foray onto the foot- ball field, Lucy joined Nottinghamshire in her first year of University. Green and Golds captain Sonia Odedra, who co-owned the CCA where Higham had cut her teeth, was influential in her decision. “I had just moved to Loughborough, I was in the England Academy and I needed to be playing the best standard of cricket,” she recalls. “Sonia was a role model to me. She was in and around the England side at the time, and I had a great relationship with her during our time at the City Cricket Academy. “Her being captain at Nottinghamshire made the change seamless, the group of girls were great and I loved it straight away.” Having always prided herself on her athletic ability whilst growing up, the “I WAS INVITED BY A FRIEND TO PLAY A GAME OF CRICKET IN THE PARK AND I NEVER LOOKED BACK.” Lucy Higham