Rachel Priest named captain of Hobart Hurricanes for WBBL07

New Zealand veteran Rachel Priest will lead Hobart Hurricanes in the seventh season of the Women's Big Bash League, the club announced on Friday (October 8). She will take over from Corinne Hall who is set to represent Sydney Thunder this season.



The 2021 season is Priest's second for the Hurricanes. In the last edition, the right-hand batter scored 354 runs in 13 matches and was awarded the Hurricanes WBBL06 Player of the Tournament. The 36-year-old said she was delighted to be asked to lead the Hurricanes this season, adding that she has learnt a lot during her time in Tasmania.



“It’s definitely a huge honour to be asked to be captain, of any team, but from my time in Tasmania so far, I know what a proud cricketing state this, and what having this role really means," Priest said.



“Even though I’ve been around cricket for a while now, I’ve continued to learn and evolve both as a player and as a person during my time here in Tassie. It’s a great group of girls we have this year – on paper, from a cricket perspective, but also off the field. I’m really excited to lead this group and see what we can achieve.”



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Despite being an international signing, Priest has represented Tasmania in the Women's National Cricket League (WNCL) and has intimate knowledge of the Tasmanian cricket set-up. Hurricanes head coach Salliann Beams said, therfore, Preist was a natural choice to fill the position left vacant by Hall.



“We have a lot of fantastic leaders in our group, but when it came to naming the captain, it was a bit of a no-brainer,” Beams said. “Not only is she a fantastic player, but she’s got a lot of experience playing cricket all over the world in all different conditions, and she’s also got a really great cricket brain."



“This will be Priesty’s second season with us, which on one hand isn’t a lot of time, however, as she’s also a part of our Tigers group, she’s already spent a lot of time with the people involved with our program, and they all agree that she is the perfect person for this role.”



Priest will have the company of South Africa batter Mignon du Preez and India's Richa Ghosh as the overseas professionals in the squad. She recently competed in The Hundred for Trent Rockets where she finished as her side's second-highest run-getter with 138 runs at a strike rate of over 136, including a blistering knock of 76.