Dingwall Academy pupil named in Scotland squad alongside World Cup heroes

Mollie Parker has been named in Scotland’s national squad for the upcoming European Cricket Championships in Spain.

The Dingwall Academy pupil has starred in both football, for the school and Ross County, and cricket for Inverness-based Northern Counties since moving to the Highlands with her family from New Zealand.

She has previously spoken of her desire to go professional in both sports, and took a step closer to that dream in cricket when she was called up to the national under-19s squad earlier this year.

With that side, she qualified for the Women’s Under-19 World Cup taking place in Malaysia next month.

Before that, though, Parker will be part of the 13-strong Scotland squad for the European Championships.

Included in that number are seven of the under-19s squad, and three members of the senior ICC Women’s T20 World Cup squad that were named Scotland’s team of the year earlier this week at the Scottish Sports Awards.

That means Parker will be lining up alongside former Scotland captain Abbi Aitken-Drummond, as well as breakthrough star Katherine Fraser, who will be skippering the squad.

Coaching the squad will be senior Scotland head coach Craig Wallace, who will be assisted by under-19 head coach Kari Carswell.

The Scotland XI will face an England XI, Ireland XI, Italy and Netherlands twice each in the Premier Division, with matches taking place between December 15 and December 20.

Steve Snell, Cricket Scotland’s head of performance, said: “For this tournament we’ve picked a squad which encapsulates a mix between providing opportunities for younger players qualified for the Under-19s with some gametime ahead of the forthcoming ICC Under-19 World Cup and offering development to some of our national squad players across a wide spectrum of experience.

“We think it’s a great chance for these players to practice their ability to exhibit skills under pressure, and there’s definitely some transferable skills that we’ll be utilising in Spain that we can then take into 2025’s ICC World Cup qualifying campaign.”

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