Brandon teen starts Manitoba's first all-female cricket team

One high school girl's dream grew into the first all-female cricket team in Manitoba, thanks to a group of like-minded teenagers from Brandon.

Mahee Patel grew up playing the sport with her family and decided to try and recruit girls at the Crocus Plains Regional Secondary School where she's a student. 

Patel says she was pleasantly surprised by the response. 

"I had no faith that more than like three girls would join. But it turns out a lot of them did," Patel said.

On Saturday the Crocus Plains Women's team, with Patel as their captain, made history at the Manitoba Cricket Stadium in Winnipeg's Assiniboine Park by becoming the first all-female team ever to participate in the Manitoba Cricket Association High School Jamboree. 

Manitoba has more than 60 cricket teams in the province — 54 in Winnipeg, eight in Brandon and one in Winkler — yet there has never been an all-female team until now. 

That means the Crocus Plains team has no other girls to compete against. 

WATCH | Manitoba's 1st all-female cricket team hits the field:

While the other teams include players with years of experience who play in league games. Patel and her team have only been playing for about three months. 

But Patel said her team isn't afraid. 

"They're not scared of hitting the ball or getting hit by the ball," she said. 

"We have all the equipment and all the safety measures taken … we're ready to go."

Garvin Budhoo, President of Cricket Manitoba, says interest in the sport has exploded in recent years. 

There were 15 teams when he took over as president a decade ago, he said. 

"We were battling with 15 or 14 teams and then we went to 20, and then over the last four years, we've just sprung and just ballooned at the waist and got to 54 this