DUBAI: Saskia Horley started playing football and cricket in her backyard with her dad while growing up in Sydney. She was a part of the Gordon Women’s Cricket Club while playing some football for Northern Tigers FC.
One thing led to another and she got to feature in an episode of the series called ‘Undercover Coach’ by Disney Channel in Australia, where an international athlete would coach the young player for a day. Naturally, Horley’s coach was dual international Ellyse Perry, who had represented her national side in both sports at that time.
It has been years since that episode aired, but Horley still gets plenty of questions about the experience of meeting her hero, even from her Scotland teammates.
And she never shies away from answering. “People still ask me about it to this day, even on this team so it’s great,” Horley told this daily before the World Cup. “I love it when it’s brought up. It was an experience that I was very grateful to have that a lot of people didn’t have the opportunity to do that. It’s going to be fun to see Pez around the hotel. I was a very young child at that point, but different now,” she added.
Starting with the domestic setup in New South Wales, Horley took a decision to represent her mother’s heritage through the Scotland national team. Despite not knowing the players, it didn’t take her a lot of time to find a bond with her Scotland teammates.
“The moment I first saw the girls in that first training it was a great feeling. I met Rachel Slater first who was the best person to meet in that instance because it was just going to be so relaxed and we got along well.
It is an amazing group to be a part of and everyone’s so welcoming to new girls and it’s a really good group,” Horley cannot stop smiling while talking about her teammates.
After playing alongside Abtaha Maqsood in the English domestic setup in Sunrisers, Horley knew about her a bit, but then captain Kathryn Bryce has been someone who has looked after her.
“It’s outstanding. I hadn’t come across Brycie before just because I was so far away from Scotland. She is a great leader on the field. It is nice to have someone have your back in any sort of situation without her even needing to tell you. Abs (Abtaha) is outstanding. I think she’s like a silent assassin and doesn’t get to show too much emotion sometimes I think but her passion and pride for Scotland is something you can see from miles away which is special,” she added.
When asked about her wish list, Horley cheekily said she wants to score at least a run and take a wicket. In the first match against Bangladesh in Sharjah she ticked both of those boxes. Even her best individual bowling figures came in Scotland’s World Cup opener.
“I would like to score at least one run. Love to take wickets because it would be really fun. I think to take in the whole experience and then win a match would be the cherry on top. I think to get at least one win as a whole team would be outstanding,” she added.
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