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SPORT
Fitness regimen leads to broken dream for top cricketer
Jodie Davis uses weight training to keep fit. Help
Jodie Davis uses weight
training to keep fit.
By JOHN HOURIGAN
Playing one sport to get fit for
another — in theory it was a great
idea — that was until Jodie Davis
had her leg broken.
Sport plays a big part in Davis's
life.
She has a Sports Science degree
from the University of Canberra and
provides technical expertise in that
field as a research officer in the
Sports Information unit at the Aus
tralian Institute of Sport
When not working, and that in
cludes lunchtime, she is usually
training — for her first love, cricket,
and more recently, soccer.
Soccer was a means to an end —
though she has a natural flair that
would blossom if she took time out
for specialist coaching in the finer
points of the game.
Determined to be 100 per cent fit
for the next cricket season, when se
lectors will choose the team for the
1993 World Cup in England, Davis,
who naturally plays indoor cricket,
decided to supplement her training
routine by playing soccer for Olym
pic.
In a recent match against the Uni
versity of Canberra, while position
ing herself to shoot for goal, Davis
was tackled and heard the leg break
— "I was actually stationary in front
of goal in the six-yard box, received
the ball on to my left foot and went to
shoot with my right ... and shock
and surprise I was halfway through
the downswing when it felt like a
metal bar across my leg and down I
went," she said.
"I can't believe my peripheral vi
sion let me down, I didn't see the girl,
I don't know who it was.
"It was a commuted break... the
tibia, broken in two places."
It was another setback for her
cricketing ambitions — she will miss
representing the ^CT at the indoor
cricket nationals in Sydney next
week — but she will be laid up until
mid July and time is on her side.
After 12 years of netball at school
and backyard cricket with her broth
er and fnends, Davis overcame pa
rental resistance (her father always
said there was not enough protec
tion) and joined a club in 1985.
Her rise was rapid. In her only
second full season in club competi
tion, Davis was selected in the Aus
tralian B squad in 1987.
She caught the eyes of selectors at
the 1988 nationals in Canberra and
made the Australian team for the
Shell Cup tour to New Zealand. Aus
tralia won the series 3-0, the only
time a clean sweep has been regis
tered.
Retaining her place in the 18
member Australian squad she
trained on the World Cup, played
that year in Australia, but did not
make the cut when the final 14 was
chosen.
She again made the squad before
the 1989 nationals in Brisbane, but
contracted glandular fever and again
her aspirations were put on hold.
Last year Davis underwent surgery
on her left knee for a bursa and did
not play.
"But next year is the big one again,
the World Cup in England, and I
want to be ready for the nationals in
Adelaide so as to regain my place in
the Australian squad," she said.
"Mindful that four or five good
Australian players will retire after the
England tour, an expanded squad
could be chosen to tour for experi
ence ... so I need to bat well, that's
my specialty, in Adelaide at the end
of December-early January."
Davis believes she is a much better
cricketer than socccr player — "but
then I have never been independent
ly coached for soccer".
"But socccr was great fitness train
ing for cricket, as we have time off
from March to July off before
pre-season cricket training begins.
"So soccer was to have helped me
build an endurance base, but not so
now."
The setbacks, however, have only
made Davis more determined and
Canberra North/Daramalan player
will be back on the same training
program as the present Australian
squad immediately the cast is re
moved.
With 30 of the 84 cricketers who
will represented their states/lerrito*
ries at the nationals realistically hav
ing some chance for selection, it is a
tough battle to make the squad and
tougher to make the team.
It will help Davis's chances for the
England tour immensely if she is se
lected after the nationals for the Shell
Cup and Rest of the World matches
early next year.
It will be after this series that the
touring squad will be named. ;
$