TALENTED young female cricketer Nalisha Patel is already looking forward to the 2015 season and facing one particular player.

England women’s team captain Charlotte Edwards is Nalisha’s favourite player – and next season she gets the opportunity to play against her in the first division of the national inter-counties’ league.

Nalisha, aged 16 and from Great Lever, was part of the Lancashire women’s team to win the Division 2 championship and earn the right to top-class women’s cricket. And that standard, as anyone who follows the game will know, has rocketed in the last few years. The female England side won the Ashes last year and this year were runners-up in the World Twenty20.

And now that professional contracts are up for grabs, young players like Nalisha finally have a sporting goal in their sights.

It’s all a far cry from the time a bored young girl watched her older brother Suneet as he played at Bolton Indian Cricket Club in Darcy Lever. “I used to go with Suneet all the time but was quite fed up watching so one day the coach asked me if I’d like to play,” she recalls.

Nalisha was around 10 at the time, and quickly showed an aptitude for the sport.

She had, in fact, enjoyed playing cricket informally with her brother from a young age: her earliest sporting memory is playing with a bat and ball with him aged about five.

Nalisha’s improving skills soon took her to Horwich RMI Cricket Club to take advantage of their established junior set-up. She was the only girl there and quickly caught the eye of Lancashire County Cricket who invited her into the County’s under-13s’ girls’ side even though she was only 11 at the time.

As well as being skilled with the bat, Nalisha has always been a good bowler, initially medium pace but these days she’s a useful off-spinner. Her male cricket hero is Northamptonshire and England spin bowler Graham Swann.

As a pupil at Bolton School, she had to balance the three times weekly Winter trips to the Old Trafford ground’s indoor training centre with her studies but admits “I always liked having cricket away from my school work.”

Her hard work all round paid off and two seasons ago she was voted the County’s Girl Player of the Year. Last year, she added to her accolades with a Bolton Sports’ Achievers’ Award.

Two years ago, she was also scouted by England selectors and invited into the national women’s development squad where she hopes to progress and play for her country.

Nalisha, who is both one of the smallest and youngest players in the Lancashire squad, has thoroughly enjoyed the last season and is looking forward to the higher level of county competition next year. “It will be much harder but that’s good,” she explains.

She is currently studying for A levels at Runshaw College and says that, although she has vague plans to be a physiotherapist, she would love to become a professional cricketer.

So, do men take the women’s game seriously enough now and give credit for genuine skills? “Yes, I think they do,” is Nalisha’ opinion. “I’ve always been encouraged by the Horwich players and officials and I think people do recognise now how much the women’s game has improved.”