Former professional golfer Shani Waugh says new leadership role at Bunbury cricket club a “challenge”

She may have scaled the peak of the world’s most lucrative individual sport, but new Colts Cricket Club women’s captain Shani Waugh is excited at the prospect of leading a team in what she considers her “favourite sport in the world”. The former professional golfer joined the Bunbury-based club last season and now takes the reins as they look to build on last year’s maiden finals experience. The 52-year-old collected seven professional wins during a distinguished golfing career, which also included a third-place US Women’s Open finish back in 2002. But despite her previous life in the often isolating world of the LPGA, Waugh says her coaching credentials and experience in the corporate world would set her up well to lead Colts’ band of youngsters this season. FULL BDCA WOMEN’S PREVIEW WITH ALL SIX CAPTAINS “It is going to be a challenge, I had to think about it before I said yes,” she said. “I have been chairman of a board and that sort of thing so I have been in team roles before, not many, but I am looking forward to it and I think it will be really good for me to put myself under pressure in a different way.” While strategising through a tense final over is a different task to standing over a big putt, Waugh said she hoped to draw on the temperament that made her one of the world’s best golfers on the field. “I am hoping to draw on my experience as a golfer to remain calm and think through all the processes that are required,” she said. For many playing in Bunbury’s women’s competition, the door to competitive cricket opened later in life, but Waugh said she hoped to see opportunities keep coming for girls like Colts and Rockingham-Mandurah youngster Emily Allen, who she will lean on this season. “I have been watching cricket my whole life, so I think I know a bit about it,” she said. “But I will get some help with some on-field stuff, so that will be nice, because I would like to transition a younger player into the role as soon as possible. “The way it is going, it is going to be a young girls’ competition — so that is how I see my role.” “I want to have as big an impact as I can to help the competition grow. It has been so good for me to have the chance later in life to play the sport which is probably my favourite sport in the world.”