Kari Carswell knows all about the pressures of representing your country from a young age.
An international debutant aged just 18 and captain two years later, the former national team head coach is now thriving in a mentorship role as Scotland’s under-19 squad prepares to head into their second T20 World Cup.
Carswell, known as Kari Anderson in her playing days, has been in post for just nine months after time spent working in New Zealand and then as head of women’s cricket at Middlesex.
The landscape has changed dramatically from her own 150-cap, 17-year playing career and the 42-year-old can see promise and potential in the 15-strong squad who she takes next week to UAE for a training camp before flying to Malaysia for the World Cup and an opener against Australia on January 18.
“Our preparations have gone well,” she says. “We started indoor training in October and having the group together for a concentrated period of time has been brilliant. You get to relay some key messages over to them and we’re able to adapt our gameplan to the players that we’ve got.
“The first nine months in the job have been great fun. I’ve had time to get to know the players and also the younger ones within the Scotland pathway as well. And we’ve definitely seen progress in that time.
“It’s an exciting time for women’s cricket in Scotland with the programmes that we’ve got domestically and the opportunities that exist for players both in England and overseas. If you want to become a professional cricketer there are definitely avenues there to make that happen. That’s exciting for our girls to see.
“I’m really happy with the direction that we are going in. The landscape has changed a lot since I was a player and even from when I was head coach before. There are more opportunities and more players playing the game which gives you a far wider base to pick from. Even for this World Cup we had genuine selection discussions ahead of naming the squad. I’m not saying that didn’t happen before but there wasn’t the same talent pool to pick from.
“There are some things we just have to deal with like the Scottish climate. If you have a wet summer how do you get the training into the girls that you need to perform at the top level? So there are always challenges around facilities. If someone would like to build us a cracking new indoor centre that would be amazing.
“But the focus and attention given to girls’ and women’s cricket is probably the biggest change I’ve seen. Everyone wants a part of it now and that’s a huge recognition of how far the game has come over the past 24 years. But we always want to achieve more.”
Scotland performed well in the previous edition of the World Cup two years ago only to go down in all three of their group matches. Landing a maiden win here – Bangladesh and Nepal are their other opponents – will be one of their targets but Carswell is mostly focused on looking to deliver three strong performances.
“We want to compete and I want our players to be brave enough to go out there and show their skills on this stage,” she adds. “I want them to trust in themselves, puff their chests out and go and show the world what they’ve got. It would be brilliant if we could qualify out of the group although it’s going to be really hard.
“We’ve got Australia first up and you look at their squad and their domestic competitions and you know they’ll be really strong. Bangladesh and Nepal will be strong too. So it’s a tough ask to get out the group but you’ve got to have goals and ambitions. So, if we could go one better than last time that would be brilliant.”
For Stirling-born Carswell, the chance to relocate to Scotland was a significant part of her decision to accept this post.
“I’ve loved being back to be honest,” she admits. “I always said when I left it was a “see you later” rather than “goodbye”. When this opportunity came up I hadn’t been a head coach for a few years but it was something I was keen to get back involved in. It’s a really good age group and hopefully we can produce lots of great cricketers who can go on to play for the senior women’s team. If that happens then the game is in a really good place.”
