Welsh Fire bosses hope the team’s success at The Hundred can help inspire the next generation of young girls to become professional cricketers.

The women’s team topped the group in this year’s competition and will face London Spirit or Oval Invincibles in the final at Lord’s on Sunday.

Aimee Rees, head of the Glamorgan Women’s and Girls’ Cricket Association and assistant coach of the Welsh Fire, hopes the success can also reach the grassroots and the next generation of female cricketers.

“We have a lot of international experience and have played in many tournaments around the world and you can’t rush things like that,” said Rees.

“The next generation now has real role models.

“This is powerful because they can see it and therefore believe that they can be it.

“Every time we come to Sophia Gardens, I see so many young girls standing on the path watching and waiting for autographs and photos.

“The Hundred has contributed massively to the rise of women’s and girls’ cricket, probably more than anything else.

“We had the 2017 World Cup, which England won, when we saw a huge increase in participation, but The Hundred has the same effect.

“I was training girls and they asked me what Shabnim Ismail was like or what Jess Jonassen eats for breakfast.

“That’s what happens to young boys when they say, ‘What’s it like to play for Manchester United?’

“The time has come.”

Rees hopes that this interest will lead to more young Welsh women following suit.

“We want to make sure we develop some young Welsh players who can do that,” said Rees.

“We have established players Alex Griffiths, Sophia Smale and Kate Coppack, and before that we had Claire Nicholas.

“It’s important that we give these girls such role models and show them that they have the opportunity to start playing cricket, play at the highest level in front of the biggest audiences and become professionals.”

“That wasn’t the case a few years ago.”