ENGLAND Womens’ cricket captain Charlotte Edwards believes Lancashire and in particular Bolton is a great place for developing talent.

The Ashes winner was at St Catherine’s Academy on Stitch-Mi-Lane to pass on hints and tips to girls and women at a cricket camp on Friday.

Edwards said: “It is great that you can come to a place like Bolton and try to help the girls develop under the ‘Chance to Shine’ initiative.

“I just hope that I can come and work with these Lancashire Under-11s players and inspire them to improve their skills.

“When I was growing up there was not much women in cricket and now we are seeing them develop with lots more opportunities in the sport.

“You are now seeing girls of eight, nine and 10 playing the sport and that is refreshing to see.”

Last week, Your Sport reported how the Lancashire Cricket Board, Bolton Wanderers Community Trust and Bolton Council attended a session with Walshaw’s Kate Cross to develop girl cricketers.

Edwards believes the Bolton area is lucky to have Kate as an ambassador in sport.

She said: “Every area needs a role model and I think Kate fits that bill.

“If she can kick on and be a future star of the England team then it will inspire girls from this area to play.

“Kate is a great talent and hopefully she will be able to perform at the T20 World Cup.”

Edwards brought the Womens’ Ashes trophy with her to the session and the event has been hailed a success by the organisers.

Jennifer Laycock, Lancashire Cricket Board development officer, said: “It is nice for the girls to be able to meet a top player and hopefully it will inspire them to success.

“We managed to hold the session for the under-11s in the morning and then the 12s and over in the afternoon.

“We even had two females who wanted to try out the sport which was great.

“This is all part of what we are trying to do by developing girls into players.

“We are looking to have a senior women’s team and also a junior girls side at Astley Bridge Cricket Club this season.

“Who knows we could have a future Kate Cross or Charlotte Edwards at some of our sessions.