Kate Coppack: Essex seamer swaps law for full-time cricket deal

Apart from last summer’s final, Coppack has a couple of other more notable achievements on her cricketing CV.

When she was 13, she became the first girl to play for the first XI at King’s School in Chester and also made six appearances as a guest for Peru at the 2018 South American Women’s Cricket Championship.

But now, following a training camp in Abu Dhabi, everything is geared towards Essex’s One-Day Cup opener away to Durham on Wednesday, 23 April.

“We always had a few full-time professionals (for Sunrisers), but now some of those girls who were juggling careers with playing part-time are now full-time which is great for them,” said Essex team director Andy Tennant.

“It gives them the chance to fulfil their potential and I know they’ll be even more excited than the full-time pros. We’re just looking forward to having a whole collective that we’ve got every day of the week to train.

“Eventually, the women’s game will have to stand on its own two feet. This is the next step for the domestic game for us to start getting more bums on seats here at Chelmsford and earning our corn, if you like, on top of the ECB investment that’s already come into the game.”

Tennant hopes the Sunrisers’ improvement in 2024, which brought their first major trophy, can be continued by Essex, who have signed several other members of their squad, apart from Coppack.

“We just want to be competitive in all formats – we’ll focus on doing what we do well and hopefully at some point, somebody will give us some silverware,” he added.

All-rounder Eva Gray believes the fact that members of the squad have taken “different routes” to reach this point is a strength.

“We have people that weren’t full-time until about a week ago but also people that have been full-time for five or six years,” she said.

“The whole way through the Sunrisers era, we were all pretty understanding of different scenarios and people’s commitments. Now, for us to pull together as one big full-time squad is really key. We’re looking forward to seeing the progress we can make.”

For Coppack, as one of the oldest members of the squad, it remains to be seen how many years she wishes to commit to the professional game.

But she added: “There’s plenty of time to be a lawyer, we’ll enjoy cricket for now.”