Davina Perrin interview: Teenage star eager to sparkle in the spotlight with Bears Women

It is right at the end of a chat in Birmingham city centre, touching on topics as varied as state-of-the-art gym equipment and M6 rush hour traffic, the 18-year-old delivers a passionate speech on why, in her opinion, a ticket to watch the Bears Women is among the hottest in town.

An entire team of advertisers probably couldn’t have come up with better.

“Forget stats,” says Perrin. “If you want to watch the most exciting cricket, out of any team in the country, come and watch us.

“I think the way we run, the way we strike the ball, the pace in our bowling line-up. We have spinners who can rag it too.

“We have a lot of gold dust, is how I like to think of it. We have players who aren’t like anyone else. 

“The way we go about our cricket is something I am really proud of. It is forward-thinking. It’s exciting.”

It’s also, as even Perrin herself concedes, a pretty bold statement. Friday afternoon in Nottinghamshire, the Bears first match in the inaugural Vitality T20 Blast, presents the chance to start proving it true.

In what is a landmark summer for the domestic women’s game, with Warwickshire one of eight counties now running a professional team, the Blast offers the biggest spotlight. Saturday sees the first of five “double-headers” at Edgbaston in which women’s matches take place either before or after the men’s.

Perrin, one of the brightest young stars in a rapidly-growing game, does not need telling the significance.

“We have had double-headers before,” she says. “But I think the fact we are attached to the Bears now and are one club has definitely brought in a wider audience than before.

“People who follow the club are following the men’s and women’s team.

“We’ve been welcomed with open arms. Not just by the club as a whole but by the lads.

“They appreciate what we do and respect what we do. There is a mutual respect there, which is so important. Their support goes a long way.”

The first thing you feel compelled to do when speaking to Perrin is to double-check her age, such is the confidence with which she acts and speaks.

There aren’t too many 18-year-olds, you suspect, who would be picked by their club to get up on stage and take part in a question and answer session, as Perrin is about to do at a Bears fan event shortly after this interview takes place.

But then Perrin is not your typical teenager. A cricket obsessive, who picked up a love for the sport from her dad Dave, she has spoken in previous interviews of how she would sit at the breakfast table watching videos of Brian Lara and Viv Richards on her phone.

And as she is quick to point out, she has been doing this kind of thing for a while now.

Tipped for a big future since she used to smash centuries for fun in youth cricket, Perrin was part of the Central Sparks team for the past three summers, becoming the youngest player ever to be called up to The Hundred in 2022 and then the youngest ever player to be given a full-time professional contract.

Previously, she had become the youngest player and first female to ever play for Fordhouses in the South Staffordshire League, aged just 13. There have since been trips to two under-19 World Cups, while earlier this year she was selected to tour with England A.

“I guess it helps, having been around it for the past few years,” she says. “But it is part of how I was raised too. My parents taught me to be confident in any space I enter. 

“The team are great too. They don’t make you feel you are any less because you are younger. Everyone is on an equal playing field.

“We are all there to do a job. It is a high performance team at the end of the day. 

“So while there are still elements of understanding I am still young and have so much to learn, there is also the sense they can learn off me too. It is a really good environment.”

Warwickshire have invested around £200,000 transforming the City End of Edgbaston, building new changing rooms for the women’s team, along with a new gym which, rumour has it, features more up to date equipment than the men’s on the opposite side of the ground.

“I think when you invest into a team and show them you are invested in what you are about, it gives us room to flourish,” says Perrin. 

“Feeling backed, feeling supported and feeling respected allows us to go out onto the pitch and just play cricket, play freely, knowing we are supported by the club and that we don’t have to prove anything.”

Perrin, the second youngest of six children, still commutes to Edgbaston from the family home in Wednesfield. Having last year learned to drive, frustration with the aforementioned M6 traffic is her own.

“My dad is no longer my personal chauffeur,” she smiles. “To be honest, I think he quite enjoyed it.”

A natural athlete, Perrin won a national 100 metre sprint title aged 10 and her power and speed in the field has already been an asset to the Bears in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup competition.

It is with the bat, however, where she must make the biggest contribution. The early weeks of the summer have represented a decent start, with scores of 69 and 53, together with an unbeaten 58 which helped her team get over the line in a recent County Cup win over Yorkshire.

Producing regular, match-winning performances is now the next step.

“You typically set goals going into a season but I think the main thing is ensuring any chance I get, I can be ‘the one’ for the team,” she says.

“I’d hope it would come with experience, more time at the crease. Getting into the 50s more, that is when you kick on, you are seeing it well and take the innings by the reins.

“It’s about showing I can really be that player for the team.”