Hong Kong Cricket Association are delighted to today welcome two of Australia’s leading women’s players who will play in upcoming Hong Kong WPL fixtures.

Sarah Coyte and Kristen Beams have been brought in under a joint initiative from HKCA and Cricket Australia.

The Hong Kong Women’s team will be hosts of this year’s ICC-Asia Women’s Championship in October and as part of the preparations, the squad will play in the HKCA Women's Premier League (WPL) on the 15th & 22nd May.

Coyte (Sail) and Beams (Bauhinia) will be split into each team to add depth to the two squads.

Mai Yanagida and Shizuka Miyaji from Japan have also arrived in Hong Kong for the matches.

The overseas players will also train alongside the Hong Kong Women's Squad for 8-10 days.

The concept is another step in the strengthening of ties between HKCA and Cricket Australia on the back of the recent announcement that Michael Clarke will play in the DTC Hong Kong T20 Blitz.

"We are delighted to have the support from Cricket Australia by having two stars from the Australian team," HKCA Director of Cricket Charlie Burke said.

“Our young squad are looking forward to hosting these two professionals into the program for the week long placement"

"One of the key performance measures we have is to qualify for the next ICC Women’s World Cup Qualifying tournament as well as the Asia Cup. Having this series with some quality players and leaders will greatly assist the teams development"

"It's hard for associate countries to grow the Women's game as they don't get to grow up watching the sport. Having role models and leadership is critical in growing the Women's game, especially in Asia. Having Kristen and Sarah will be fantastic for not only the Hong Kong girls but also the other overseas players"

"Hopefully this is the start of a great relationship between HKCA and Cricket Australia, particularly for the Women's program. We had one of our players with the Melbourne Renegades in the WBBL (Mariko Hill) and we hope to have more in the future"

For all HKCA media enquiries on the WPL, please contact max.abbott@hkcricket.org

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