BEX Odgers says seeing friends thrive on the global stage is crystallising her cricketing dream, writes Old Dickson of Sportsbeat.

.The 19-year-old St Austell ace followed the U19 Women’s T20 World Cup in South Africa intently having recently played alongside many in the English team.

England’s young stars reached the final in Potchefstroom before going down to a tough seven-wicket defeat against India.

Cornwall star Odgers was awarded a winter contract by south-west side Western Storm last year and admits watching her peers flourish in the competition can help fire her to success this season.

Odgers said: “I really enjoyed the U19 World Cup in South Africa. Most of the team out there, I’ve played with or against before. 

“I’ve got a couple of really close friends out there - it’s amazing to see the younger girls in the England set-up come through and show what they can do.

“Most of my cricket career I’ve known these girls and having been so competitive with them, you don’t feel like you’re far away.

“I really hope I can work hard this winter and get a summer contract with the Western Storm seniors - hopefully I can play cricket with them all summer.”

Odgers is currently balancing her burgeoning cricket career with studying medical sciences at the University of Exeter.

And while the balance between studying and a sports career could be challenging, it is something she is relishing at this current stage.

“I’m training with uni so that’s an extra session a week – that’s become training every day of the week now which is good,” added Odgers, who benefits from financial support from Boost Drinks – a company born over 20 years ago with a vision of energising everybody in every way and is committed to supporting its local communities, whether this be fuelling them with its range of Sports, Energy, Iced Coffee, and Protein Drinks, or by getting more involved to help them achieve their goal.

“We started training with Storm back in mid-November, while I’ve been up to Bristol and Cardiff a couple of times to train with the seniors as well," said Odgers.

“The cricket here is amazing - some of my motivation to come here was definitely how good their cricket programme is.  

“It’s a really good balance between my cricket and education. Sometimes I have a really busy morning, but then I just go to training and completely switch off from that.

“You’re always busy so you don’t have too much time to wander off things.”

Boost Drinks provides young athletes with financial support, recognition, and personal development opportunities through its partnership with SportsAid. Each athlete receives a £1,000 award which contributes towards costs such as travel, accommodation, and equipment – for more information visitwww.boostdrinks.com