Meet Michaela Kirk: The South African starlet hoping to light up the East Midlands

ELIZABETH BOTCHERBY: Aged 13, Michaela Kirk was facing the bowling of Shabnim Ismail in South Africa's domestic competitions. Now aged 21, she's moved over 7,500 miles to join Lightning and fulfill her ambition of playing for England

As far as 13th birthday presents go, Michaela Kirk has a contender for one of the coolest ever – a shirt from her idol, and future Proteas captain, Mignon du Preez.  

"I really looked up to Mignon, I always wanted to be like her. She surprised me on my birthday with one of her shirts and I was over the moon," she says, still gushing with excitement nearly nine years later. 

At that stage, Kirk was still a precocious hopeful, a prodigious cricketer who had attended trials for Northerns aged 10 and trained alongside the likes of du Preez and Sune Luus ever since. However, four months into her teens, she was selected for Northerns’ CSA Provincial Women’s T20 fixture against Easterns, her senior debut coming at an age when most youngsters are still unsure about which subjects to take at GCSE.  

Her performance in Northerns’ five-wicket victory wasn’t particularly remarkable, a catch to dismiss Jessica Poley her most telling contribution. However,  it was her first step towards amassing 1,293 runs and 38 wickets in 85 appearances for the region, captaining the side on several occasions during their 2019 title-winning season, and securing a dream move to England all before her 22nd birthday.

And Kirk credits several women, all of whom have pulled on South Africa’s famed green and yellow, with fast-tracking her development.  

^{Kirk batting for Northerns in South Africa}

"Mignon is a great cricketer and on and off the field she’s just a great person. You can go to her for advice or if you’re feeling down and she always manages to be positive and bring a smile out," she says. "We also had Sune, she’s an amazing person who will help you no matter what. They’re great role models to have while you’re growing up. 

"When we played the different provinces, we played against Laura Wolvaardt, Chloe Tryon, Shabnim Ismail – everyone! For a 13-year-old, seeing the national team players and playing against them was a really great learning experience. I don’t think I can put that into words, playing with your role models, playing against them, it really is amazing. 

"I remember one of my first games was against Shabnim bowling 120kph, so I was quite nervous, but it was an exciting moment for me to prove that I was as good as the national players and striving towards where they were. Putting my hard work and talent against them when I was 13 – you have no fear when you’re young."

Alongside representing Northerns, Kirk enjoyed two years at the Titans cricket academy in Gauteng, honing her skills as one of only a handful of girls in a boys' world. Fortunately, having grown up playing very competitive garden cricket and hockey with her father and brother – "he’s very good at hockey, I’ve got cricket, so we settled on that!" – it wasn’t an alien situation for her. Indeed, she’s a firm believer that her exposure to a male-dominated environment actually benefitted her playing.  

"I was really fortunate to go through [the academy] – my game evolved so much," Kirk explains. "Even during school, we didn’t have many girl’s teams, so I mainly played with the boys growing up - it was normal.  

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"It was a great learning experience, training at high intensity, being competitive, owning what you do, you quickly learn to harden up a bit. In order to improve I think every girl should have a training session with the boys."

And it was through the academy that she had her first encounter with another one of her role models, South Africa batsman Rassie van der Dussen.

"I trained with Aiden Markram and Rassie van der Dussen and a bit of my batting is modelled on Rassie’s. I was fortunate that my coach is his agent, so Rassie helped develop my game with some of his shots. I’m not the biggest hitter so he’s helped me get it over the inner ring of fielders."

Having enjoyed such a high-profile start to her cricket career, it’s easy to question why she has decided to leave it all behind and move 7,500 miles from Gauteng to her grandparents’ house in Redditch. Her reasons are fourfold.  

First, family. A couple of years ago her parents decided they wanted to return home to England, a move which they will complete this summer. Second, to fulfil her long-term desire to study sports science, or possibly biokinetics, at Loughborough University – a wish which certainly helped her cause when it came to approaching the East Midlands-based Lightning for a contract. Then there’s her ambition to represent England at international level, and lastly, her longing for a new arena to showcase her talents. 

"Personally, I felt that I need a new spot in my cricket career and unfortunately, I didn’t get all the opportunities I thought I deserved in South Africa," she admits. "So, I thought I’ll have a fresh start in England and go and prove to myself that I’m as talented as people say I am. 

"I think I can now say all my hard work has paid off with Lightning and being chosen for the Trent Rockets. If I had stayed in South Africa, I don’t think I’d have the opportunity to play in The Hundred. The move is about growing my game and starting in a fresh environment with new people.  

"And it’s every girl’s dream to play for their national side. The ECB performance centre is at the university so it’s great for me to see how hard they train and if I put in the hard yards and keep grinding, hopefully one day it will pay off. It’s a great goal to have and it makes me work just a bit harder than everyone else."

Of course, such a big move isn’t without its difficulties. Kirk rings her mum in South Africa every night, the great distance between them not helping the empty nest feelings (her dad is currently isolating in England in the hope of sitting in the crowd for her Lightning debut against Southern Vipers).  

And then there’s the pesky English conditions: slower, wetter, and lower bouncing than the flat, dry tracks in Pretoria. Not that she’s had too many issues adapting: in her first match for Nottinghamshire, she put on an 80-run third-wicket stand with Sonia Odedra on her way to a career high-score of 61 not out; in her second, she hit an unbeaten 38 from 31 deliveries to bat her side to victory against Northamptonshire for the second time in 12 hours – not a bad start to her English career. 

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"It was great. I just kept telling myself the longer I stay in, the easier it will be," Kirk recalls. "I was lucky enough to have Sonia as my batting partner to help me get through the first couple of overs, telling me to keep going because it will get easier. I was really fortunate to have her."

Another player she singles out from her brief career with Nottinghamshire and Lightning should be a surprise to no one: England opener and No.1 ranked ODI batter, Tammy Beaumont. 

"We had an internal warm-up game and Tammy was on my team, and batting with her was amazing," she says. "Just seeing how calm she is at the crease; she really backs herself. It’s amazing to watch as a youngster coming up and just learning to trust your process, your talent and just go for it. 

"She was so calm and nice to talk to. I was a bit nervous – it was my first match out for Lightning – so just batting with her was relaxing."

Looking ahead to her first full summer in England, the 21-year-old has a lot on her to-do list. Taking her mum to the White Cliffs of Dover - a place on both of their bucket lists; visiting her grandparents’ home city of Edinburgh; a trip to Cornwall to take in the towns after which her high school houses were named: Truro, Penzance, Camborne and Bodmin; and hopefully wowing her teammates with her baking.

_{Kirk's heroes: Sune Luus and Mignon du Preez, Rassie van der Dussen (top) and Sarah Taylor (bottom)}

And that’s on top of her commitments to Lightning and Trent Rockets, which could see her chalk up 26 matches across the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy, Women’s Regional T20 and The Hundred, and her desire to push her already impressive T20 strike rate (98.88) north of 100.  

"I’m looking forward to both opportunities, playing with some of the best county players for Lightning and playing with internationals for Trent Rockets. It will be amazing to see the talent on display," she says.  

"For me it’s about growing my game and learning as much as possible from each team and the different coaches – they’ll all be able to point out something different. And if I can push my strike rate above 100, that would be great. That’s one thing I want to do, show I’m here to stay and show my talent."

However, there is one date in particular which stands out this summer – August 6, the day Trent Rockets travel to Sophia Gardens to face Welsh Fire and, more importantly, the day Kirk will finally meet the missing role model from her considerable collection: Sarah Taylor.  

"She’s one of the best keepers in the world, men and women combined," says Kirk, herself no stranger to a match behind the stumps. "She just backs herself and with everything she was going through, she stayed strong and pushed through it. Her hands behind the stumps are amazing and when she bats, she’s fearless. She just says, 'I can bat, let me show you.' As a batter that’s what you want, to bat with freedom like she does. 

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"I’ve never seen her play but to play against her in The Hundred is going to be quite amazing. It’ll be a surreal moment to finally see her play up close and I can’t wait for that!"

Amazing. It’s a word Kirk uses on numerous occasions to describe events from her career – having teammates like du Preez and Luus, facing Ismail as a teenager, the prospect of meeting Taylor. Fortune and luck, too, are frequently referenced, used to describe her encounters with Odedra, Beaumont, and van der Dussen, and her opportunities at the Titans academy.  

She has the aura of a serial competition winner, living her dream as a cricketer in England the latest in a long list of prizes. 

However, if her teenage years, her pre-season performances for Nottinghamshire, and her drive and determination are anything to judge her by, it surely won’t be long before the name 'Michaela Kirk' is inspiring girls and boys across the East Midlands.