Erin Osborne relishes new role; has no plans to quit just yet  

“I have no plans on retiring just yet, extremely ambitious of what I would like to achieve on the field personally but also with the ACT Meteors. But it's a wonderful opportunity” Osborne was quoted as saying to Canberra Times.

“Cricket ACT in consultation with Cricket Australia have created a program that allows me to work across an array of programs in our High-Performance area and work among some of the greatest coaches Canberra has to offer. I have a passion for coaching and also passing on some of the wonderful experiences that I've learnt from the game and it has given me so much.”

The 31-year-old right-arm off-break bowler had a quite prolific international career representing Australia 121 times across formats, taking a total of 121 wickets.

The idea for the program popped up during the T20 World Cup earlier this year through a discussion between CACT High-Performance manager Olivia Thornton CA’s head coach of development Matt Betsey.

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“The stadium was packed, we were talking about the increase in the number of females playing the game and we were saying hey what about the coaches?” Thornton said. “She's a perfect candidate to be honest because she has the desire to coach at a high level. We’re playing our part in helping her transition into that space and hopefully, she’s got a few more playing years under her belt."

“I think she’s got a number of skills both from a technical point of view and also from a soft skill set as well. So I think for someone who’s played over 100 games for Australia, she certainly ticks that box in terms of that experience. So if we can give her a bit of a leg up so when that day comes, in terms of closing that playing chapter, she can transition into the coaching space relatively easily,” he added.

In the recent 'Press for Progress' report, it had said that there has been a 32 per cent rise in women representation across the cricket boards in Australia – a fact Osborne is proud to see. “There’s been an increase in the number of girls playing cricket across Australia and that's something I'm really proud to see,” she said. “On the back of the Women's World Cup where we had over 80,000 witnesses a wonderful game at the MCG...that's inspiring and it's wonderful to see that progress being made.”