Cricket isn't that popular in Tara Norris's home country, but the American wants to see it boom.
"Women's sport in the USA is massive," Norris said.
"I'd love to see cricket gain the same power that's in soccer, NBA, baseball, and women's softball."
The little-known, left-arm fast bowler made headlines after claiming the first five-wicket haul in an innings, in the inaugural Women's Premier League (WPL).
Since then she's played in Hong Kong and now the United Kingdom, but hopes to see a boost in the women's game in the USA.
The 24-year-old believes that could come off the back of America's Major League Cricket competition, a new men's T20 tournament which starts in July.
"I'd love to see a women's league take place, hopefully in the next three years," Norris said.
"And that will hopefully lead to increasing participation in the USA, in terms of more fixtures, facilities and coaches."
USA to the UK and back again
Norris is still pretty fresh to international cricket, but is making a name for herself on the globe-trotting T20 stage.
She was born in Philadelphia but moved to Spain, then England as a child and started playing there.
"It was a way for me to make friends," Norris said.
"I really enjoyed it, and the coach at the time suggested that I join a local girls club. I made more friends there and found I picked it up quite easily."
With her raw talent, Norris got through county trials and played for Sussex, as well as getting some opportunities with England's Junior Academy.
In 2020 she got her first contract, with the Southern Vipers, a team that represented the South of England in the now-defunct Women's Cricket Super League.
But it was her run with the Southern Brave, in the newly founded The Hundred competition, that put her on the radar of Team USA.
Nadia Gruny is Team USA's player director in the states, and says it was known to some administrators that Norris was born in Philadelphia.
"So there was some communication with her on whether she'd be interested in playing for the USA," Ms Gruny said.
"She agreed as she wanted to help us in cricket as an associate nation, and got on board."
Once the negotiations were done, Norris signed on with Team USA for some tournaments in the English off-season.
"I went down to the US Embassy in London about a week later, sorted out all my forms and I renewed my passport," Norris said.
She first played for the USA in the ICC America's regional T20 competition in Mexico.
"She did pretty well there and then moved on to the Zimbabwe 50-over World Cup qualifiers, where she also had some good performances with the bat and ball," Ms Gruny said.
But it wasn't only her on-field performance that impressed.
"She developed a really good rapport with the players very quickly from what I understand, and seemed to be a very good fit with the USA team, apart from bringing her experience from playing a lot of cricket in England," Ms Gruny said.
"At the time the team was dominated by younger players, who were all very new, talented, and inexperienced, she provided them direction as a role model."
The opportunities keep knocking
As the WPL approached, Norris decided to put her hat in the ring for the auction as an associate player (players not from the 12 countries with exclusive membership).
"I thought I might potentially get a very slight chance if I put my name in as a USA player," Norris said.
She entered the draft at the very lowest price bracket, hoping to get picked up.
Norris was eventually selected to play with the Delhi Capitals, for the bargain price of about $18,000.
"When my name was called out, I couldn't believe it to be honest. But I got picked and within the next 10 days I flew out to Mumbai," Norris said.
"I was extremely grateful and really excited for the opportunity to play."
It was in her first outing for the Capitals that Norris picked up her famous five-wicket haul, which included the scalp of Australian all-rounder Ellyse Perry.
"It was a very sort of pinch-me moment, really surreal. I absolutely loved being able to contribute to the team and be able to do quite well," Norris said.
"It was definitely a career highlight for sure."
The icing on the cake was the fact Norris found two mentors to help with her bowling, in Marizanne Kapp and Shikha Pandey.
"I was always trying to learn as much as I could," Norris said.
"I'd speak to Kappie (Kapp) quite a bit about death balling and variations. I would speak to Shikha about being adaptable or trying to control as much as I could. There were two quite different styles of bowling approaches, but together they were brilliant mentors for me.
"The whole squad was full of fantastic people, players like Meg Lanning, Shefali Verma, and all the Indian local players were brilliant and really talented."
From the WPL, Norris went on to play in the FairBreak Invitational Tournament in Hong Kong, where she took seven wickets in six games for the Barmy Army.
She feels playing in these two tournaments in the space of eight weeks has really helped her grow.
"It has definitely grown my game in terms of confidence as well as adaptability," Norris said.
Ms Gruny says Norris's performances, have really put America on the women's cricket radar.
"As everyone knows, she had excellent performances, which has really catapulted both herself and USA cricket into the spotlight."
Where to from here?
Norris doesn't know what her ultimate goal is, for now, she wants to focus on the short term.
"I want to play really well for my team at Thunder and have a good English domestic season. Hopefully that will lead to a really successful Hundred," Norris said.
"I'd also absolutely love to be involved with Delhi Capitals again next year.
"In order to do that, I've got to have a really good next 12 months, so I'll hopefully play the highest level of cricket and play with some pretty big stars again, and that'd be amazing.
"But right now, it's probably little steps this year in England."
Looking back at the places cricket has taken her, Norris is excited by what's ahead for women's cricket in the next five to 10 years, citing the huge crowds coming in for games and the exposure cricketers get now in various tournaments.
"I absolutely love the team aspect and as a kid, that's what got me into cricket in the first place.
"I like the fact that you get to travel to these amazing countries too.
"The pressure that the crowds build … and since I've started playing, I have been seeing the progression in women's cricket, which has been brilliant."
Ms Gruny says it's brilliant to have a role model like Norris in terms of achievement, work ethic and fitness for other younger girls in the USA, who aspire to be professional cricketers.
"To see one of their teammates in Tara participate and succeed at that level is very inspirational to them.
"It helps them to believe that 'Hey, if one of my teammates can do it, I can do it'."
Niharika Raina is a sports reporter with Indo-Asian News Service (IANS), a news agency in New Delhi, India.
She is a part of ABC International Development's Women in News and Sport Initiative, funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade through the Team Up program.
