Stars eye athleticism to keep No.1 ranking

Commonwealth Bank Southern Stars coach Matthew Mott is challenging his team to hit new levels of fitness and athleticism as they look to retain their world No.1 ranking.

The Southern Stars remain the top team in the ICC Women’s Rankings despite losing the World T20 final to West Indies in April, but the gap between the world’s best teams is closing.

Australia are already considered the most athletic team in the women’s game – a factor England coach Mark Robinson singled out as a key reason for his side’s World T20 semi-final loss to the Southern Stars earlier this year – but Mott believes there is still room for improvement.

Quick single: WBBL clubs set sights on Indian stars

The speed and agility of fast bowler Megan Schutt – whose athletic dives in the deep almost single-handedly restricted England’s chase in Delhi - is something he wants the entire squad to aspire to.

"Looking at the World T20, we showed a lot of pressure and we’re very strong in a number of areas and we’re quite athletic in the field, but we really want to take that to the next level," Mott told cricket.com.au.

"I think we’re a very confident fielding side with some very solid fielders and a couple that stand out, but I want to drag the centre mass up a bit higher. We want to be the best fielding team in the world.

"Schutt’s athleticism in the outfield is something we want to be the prototype for our whole playing group. Being able to get to the ball quickly, release it quickly and make those diving stops is an area we’ll be working on."

To achieve this, the Southern Stars – as well as Australia’s men’s team, who were knocked out of the World T20 in the group stage – will be combining their strength and conditioning training with their fielding work, rather than undertaking the two tasks separately.

"There’s going to be a real focus point in our agility in the field, getting run outs and converting catches. Tim Coyle is our fielding coach and he’s going to play a big part in that.

"We’ll be doing a lot more fielding at the front end of our sessions, as well as isolated fielding sessions and trying to bring our fitness and skills training more closely together.

"To incorporate that fitness and fielding aspect, we’ll tie in really closely with our strength and conditioning team, matching the running the players normally do in with our fielding practice."

The Southern Stars have started their preseason training after a six-week break, as they prepare for a tour of Sri Lanka in September.

Long term, their thoughts are already turning to their next major event, the Women’s World Cup in England next June and Mott is determined to leave no stone unturned as they seek to defend their 2013 title.

Quick single: Knight appointed England captain

Faster running between the wickets will be another area of focus, with Mott believing a failure to turn singles into twos played a major role in their World T20 defeat to the Windies.

"There was a perception the Windies were more powerful than us, but we actually scored more boundaries than them across the two games we played and throughout the tournament.

"We certainly missed an opportunity over there (with running). Our boundary scoring was higher, but our scoring per between those boundaries was a lot lower than we wanted."

Mott also wants to see the focus on fielding and athleticism passed on to Women’s National Cricket League teams and Women’s Big Bash League clubs as they prepare for the 2016-17 summer.

"We want fielding to be a really big component when it comes to selecting teams."

Australia have another busy 12 months ahead of them.

They’ll undergo a series of training camps at the Bupa National Cricket Centre in Brisbane before departing for Sri Lanka in September, while this summer is set to feature a home series against South Africa in November.