Sienna Eve in a spin over Cricket NSW scholarship

The Speers Point 18-year-old has been awarded a Tier One scholarship in the Basil Sellers Emerging Player Program after being identified as one of the most promising young cricketers in NSW.

The talented left-arm orthodox spin bowler and middle order batter has trained with the Sydney Thunder and Sydney Sixers WBBL sides in the past two weeks as part of the program.

Tier one scholarship athletes are identified as having the potential to earn a state or rookie contract in the short term and previous recipients include Australian players Pat Cummins and Alyssa Healy.

"The scholarship basically helps emerging players in the program and gives them financial support and also stuff outside of cricket, like education and dealing with the stresses of high-level cricket," Eve said.

"It gives you great opportunities to train with high-level coaches and with teams like the [NSW] Breakers and the Thunder and Sixers, which is amazing.

"It's so surreal. I got to bowl to [England and Thunder captain] Heather Knight in the nets."

Eve's interest in cricket was forged watching the Ashes with her dad and granddad.

She first played for Warners Bay-Cardiff with the boys at age nine or 10 before joining an all-girls side at Newcastle City.

Eve now plays for City in the Newcastle District Cricket Association Women's T20 Cup and for Northern Districts' first-grade side in the NSW Premier Cricket competition.

The NSW Country under-19 representative will be a key weapon when the Newcastle women's team open their Country Bash campaign on the Central Coast on Friday and Saturday.

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