It hasn’t been the easiest week for the Surrey Stars. First, they lost their best player – the Mega-Star herself, Meg Lanning – who was forced to withdraw from the Kia Super League with a shoulder injury. Then they were defeated in both rubbers of their warm-up double-header at Loughborough, with the Lightning smashing them for over 200 in the second match.

But South African all-rounder Marizanne Kapp is still able to find the bright side:

“Those matches didn’t go as planned but we are still positive. One of the girls made a comment that at least we were bonding, so that’s quite unique – we had a really bad day but we still smiled.”

Stars captain Nat Sciver agrees:

“We had a good day despite the result! It was good fun for a first day out as a team and we can definitely only get better from there!”

Given the traditional rivalry between Middlesex and Surrey, the decision to tie London’s only KSL franchise so tightly to the Surrey brand, has been a controversial one; but Sciver insists this isn’t a problem for the players:

” I think the Middlesex-Surrey rivalry is more with the men – we’ve got some Kent players as well, and based on yesterday, we’ve bonded really well.”

Almost to prove the point, it is two Middlesex players that Sciver points to when asked who we should be looking out for among the more junior members of their squad:

“The young girls that we have are particularly exciting, especially Sophia Dunkley, and also Alex Hartley making her England debut this summer – they’re really exciting prospects.”

The big game for the Stars is their home match versus the Yorkshire Diamonds at The Oval, and Sciver is obviously looking forward to leading the side out at one of the most historic grounds in cricket:

“The two T20 games there against Middlesex have been really good – we’ve had loads of people watching which is really brilliant. We’ve already sold 500 tickets, and hopefully we can sell more.”

Asked about comparisons with the WBBL, Kapp, who reached the final of that competition with the Sydney Sixers, says the same principles apply:

“KSL is shorter [than WBBL] but even for the WBBL you had to be on point from the first game – the same will happen here, we just have to be ready when the first team comes.”

For the Surrey Stars, that team is the Charlotte Edwards’ Southern Vipers, at the Ageas Bowl next Sunday – it should be a cracker!