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[RightArmRapid]

She would probably nail it better than most of us mate...seems a bit of a harsh comment

Bouncers hurt men too, would you tell a male friend not to play county cricket as they'd get hurt?

[justnotcricket86]

Good point - I reckon a good 80% of men who play the game in general would struggle with a 85-95mph bouncer.

Ask Keiron Pollard, he'll tell you he's never smashed all of the ones he has faced

[Bulldog Cricket]

Not many fast bowlers in county second x1

[fatbats]

Very few county bowlers I've seen get it up to and beyond 90mph most around the 85 mark

I bet she would be practising that on bowling machine to see if she could do it as bowlers would target that as no mercy

Man woman top order or tailender a wicket is a wicket

Played against a woman indoor other week and Wilkie will agree she was good and was getting ball around throat indoor so held her own

[justnotcricket86]

I know she won't be facing that sort of pace, just trying to say that I'm pretty confident she could hold her own also.

I'm a huge fan of hers, and another reason why I love this sport. All for it personally. She's a professional sportswoman, I find it hard to believe that 1) she would put herself in a position where she could fail badly and 2) Sussex wouldn't be giving her the chance unless she was capable.

Good luck to her

[Bulldog Cricket]

I think you are over estimating the standard of county second x1 cricket and underestimating the standard of women's international cricket. From what I have seen the women's is better.

[Kieron_BT]

Can't be allowed to happen. How can a county bowler bowl a bouncer at a woman, they can't - she will end up getting hurt.

And so might Women on the front line in our army, yet they have the guts to do it. Are you not happy for women to be on our front line either because they might get hurt?

Its quite shocking that you thing just 'because she is a women' she wouldn't be able to handle it and get hurt not take her for the fact she is extremely talaneted and as said before more than likely better than anyone on this forum

I don't have the balls to fight on the front line but I have the deepest respect for any man OR women that does it so I think its her choice if she wants to 'risk' getting hurt it whatever activity she chooses to do so wheter it be army or sport

[Tom]

If Holly is good enough, then fair enough. But let's see how she fairs in Premier League cricket first.

[Bulldog Cricket]

premier 1 cricket is better than county second x1. Well it is in the west of England prem 1.

[alba caerulea]

If she's not good enough she will be found out, simple as that

Shouldn't knock someone for trying

[Leddster138]

I can't help feel this is a bit of a stunt however if Sussex believe she can progress to full Sussex first team then fair enough and good luck, you won't know unless you give them a shot. I've seen some VERY average people play twos cricket.

That being said over the last 6 yeasr Sussex has had a keepers at most levels within the England set up. I'd be surprised if it went that far downhill since Peter Moores left that there was no youth keepers coming through a heavily male biased set up.

I'm probably being unkind but I think the worst thing would happen is she plays gets skittled and that's the opportunity wasted, perhaps it's better to have a decent average at club cricket first. Her current club is Brighton but she's not played a game for them yet!!

[Kieron_BT]

Her current club is Brighton but she's not played a game for them yet!!

Isn't this her?

http://brightonandhove.play-cricket.com/profile/statistics.asp?id=85289&ruleTypeID=6101

[fros23]

Isn't this her?

http://brightonandhove.play-cricket.com/profile/statistics.asp?id=85289&ruleTypeID=6101

It is although she didn't play for us last year.  She played for Finchley Gunns, presumeably because she was based in London on the MCC young cricketers scheme. 

With her playing mens cricket in Birmingham this year maybe she is based there this summer if she is no longer on the MCC scheme.  Would make sense given the amount of training they do at Loughborough

[alexhilly1492]

I can only see it as being positive, got nothing to lose and its a great opportunity and for me just shows how far womens cricket has come to the fore and possibly improved, i hope it goes well and possibly paves the way for more opportunities like this
Sussex clearly believe she's good enough or wouldn't have handed her the opportunity
we cant really judge until we see the results but from what ive seen of her batting (mainly on sky coverage) it seems solid and the sky commentary team, rarely have a bad word to say, so good luck to her

[tim2000s]

Can't be allowed to happen. How can a county bowler bowl a bouncer at a woman, they can't - she will end up getting hurt.

Leo, that's an incredibly small world view you have there. If women can dive into burning buildings or run some of the worlds biggest companies, why can't they play cricket alongside men? All are using the same training facilities and all have bowling machines that will hit 100mph. What difference does it really make?