Lara Maritz is just 25-years old, but she’s already entering her second act as an Ireland cricketer. A lot has happened in Irish women’s cricket since the last time Lara Maritz took to the field to represent her country.
It was a tumultuous time for everyone when Maritz’s view of playing cricket lost its shine; the time around Covid could not have come at a worse time for the young cricketer as she was figuring out her path forward after finishing school.
Playing for Ireland started out exactly how she had expected. Still in school and cricket-mad, Lara got called up in 2017 for a tour to Dubai and then South Africa as Cricket Ireland looked to increase the playing opportunities for the women’s team. The problem was, for the senior players at least, that the increased opportunities meant more time away from work which they could not afford. Maritz was one of a host of young up-and-coming cricketers who jumped at the chance to play the likes of England, South Africa and India as a new generation was blooded.
“As a child, to represent my country was always a dream, so to get that opportunity was very special for me,” Maritz remembers. “We toured Dubai first and then went on to a tri-series in South Africa. I’ll always remember that trip because I was such a young kid, not long 16, and I didn’t really know what was going on, I didn’t know the players I was playing against. I did realise, though, that it was an honour and privilege to play against those players for India and South Africa but also alongside some of the greats of Irish cricket in later tours; players like Clare Shillington, Ciara Metcalfe, Isobel and Cecelia Joyce – they’ll always be my role models. Having them around in the early part of my career is so special to me.”
Maritz continued to impress with her pace, and she was a consistent member of the senior team, despite her young age.
“I was picked, then, to play in the 2018 World Cup in West Indies and it was a huge honour. It was super cool to play in a World Cup. I was only 17-years old and to see all the big players in women’s cricket in the flesh was amazing. I remember I was so innocent and being the cricketer that I am now, looking back, I have to smile at the way I went about things and how I kind of just took things as they came – I really didn’t worry too much.”
In 2019, Maritz finished school and, after a summer of cricket at home, she looked beyond Ireland’s borders for the next challenge and stage in her cricket development.
“After the World Cup, I finished school and then I went to Perth for a year to play cricket. I only planned on being there for a year, but it turned into two because covid happened. It was a really hard time for me because I was away from my family and I hadn’t planned to be away that long. Finally, I got back home after almost two years, and I was picked to play in the series against Scotland in Belfast in May 2021. Then there were the ICC T20 Women’s World Cup Regional Qualifiers in Spain.
“It had been a long time between international matches and the combination of everything, being away from home for so long, the uncertainty around covid and the changes in my priorities at that time, I just wasn’t going through a good time mentally so I decided to step away from the Ireland squad.”
Cricket would remain central to Maritz’s life, but she began to place more focus on other elements in her life.
“I looked to refocus and decided to study HR. I still continued to work on my cricket and while it was hard to step away from the squad, in hindsight, I think it was good for me and my personal development as well as my cricket development.
” When I stepped away, I was just a bowler, but I really wanted to be an all-rounder so in my time studying I continued to work more on my batting.
“During my final year studying, I got the opportunity to play professionally for the Garden Route Badgers in South Africa. It was an opportunity I couldn’t refuse, and my college – National College of Ireland – really supported me. That experience and change of scene, meeting new people, getting back into the high-performance environment, everything about it made me fall in love with the game again and I thought, “hey, I really need to take this a bit more seriously”.
The summer preceding this sojourn to South Africa saw Maritz awarded the Cricket Ireland Female Club Cricketer of the year. She brought that momentum into the summer in South Africa, but on her return, she went into full-time work in her studied career choice.
“I still thought it was really important for me to gain the experience in HR so when I got back from South Africa, I worked for a year in that area. Then, last May, I decided to take the plunge and I quit my job, I got back into domestic cricket in Ireland playing for the Typhoons in the Evoke Super Series and I continued to work really hard on my game and, well, here I am.
“It’s been brilliant since deciding to increase my training to have the Balbriggan indoor centre available to me – it has helped a lot. I’ve also had some great coaches around me. Jeremy Bray has helped me with my batting, my family has supported me, and I’ve been able to play for Balbriggan in Leinster and Holywood in Northern Ireland along with the Typhoons in the Evoke Super Series. All of that has helped me to improve my batting, get back to bowling, but also to just really enjoy cricket.
“Looking back now, it was really hard to step away from the game at international level when I did, but it was definitely the right thing for me at the time, and now I am in a much better place to deal with everything that comes with playing at the top level. I wouldn’t say I appreciate the opportunity more now, because I loved it so much the first time around, but it’s a different kind of appreciation because I’ve had to work so hard to get back here.”
It’s been a slow burn for Maritz but a good summer in club and domestically got her back on the radar for the Ireland selectors, five years after her last appearance in green.
“I got called up to play for Ireland A in the summer which was a step in the right direction. This winter, I’m in South Africa playing for Boland which is in the Western Cape, and I’m just loving the game again, so when I got the call from Lloyd (Tennant) I was a bit nervous. He asked, ‘Do you want to come to Dubai with us?’. I just said, ‘of course I do!’.
“That’s what made me realise, okay, it’s really time to get back in the game. It’s such a privilege to represent your country and I really hope that I can do it for the next few years and contribute to women’s cricket.”
The hard work has been put in, but there is more to come for Maritz as she joins a relatively inexperienced Ireland unit in the ICC Women’s Emerging Nations Trophy in the UAE, starting tomorrow.
FIXTURES
Group Stage:
- 12 November: Ireland Women v Sri Lanka – T20I (5am GMT)
- 13 November: Ireland Women v UAE – T20I (5am GMT)
- 16 November: Ireland Women v PNG – T20I (9.15am GMT)
- 18 November: Ireland Women v Scotland – T20I (5am GMT)
* All times shown are local Irish time
The Finals Stage:
- 20 November: Super Sixes
- 22 November: Super Sixes
- 23 November: Super Sixes
- 25 November: Final
