Tayla Vlaeminck is swapping Melbourne’s early preseason winter grind for a stint in the United Kingdom, as the Victoria quick makes the most of a long-awaited return from injury.
Vlaeminck, who headlined 2026-27 contract list revealed by Victoria on Tuesday, jetted off to Leeds on Monday, where she will spend the next month training alongside Yorkshire’s women’s county side.
The 27-year-old quick is eager to build on her first tentative steps back into competitive cricket, which saw her bowl 12 overs across the three-day ‘Green v Gold’ development match in March – and take a wicket with her ninth delivery.
That game in Sydney was Vlaeminck’s first since her 2024 T20 World Cup campaign ended in heartbreak, as she suffered a serious shoulder injury in the opening over of her first match of the tournament.
Cricket Victoria and Yorkshire have a reciprocal deal that allows players to travel and train overseas during their home winter months.
After 18 months spent rehabilitating her shoulder and slowly building back up to her return to play, Vlaeminck was only too happy to swap the start of Victoria’s preseason for the chance to train outdoors at Headingley.
“I feel like I’ve done an 18-month preseason, so I wasn’t that keen on stopping bowling and a bit of sun and turf over there will be nice,” Vlaeminck told cricket.com.au.
“To get over to England and get this training block in, I’m really looking forward to it just as a an opportunity to actually get better.
“Sometimes, when you’re in rehab for so long, you lose the ability to actually work on your skills and try and improve your cricket.
“It’s more about being able to just bowl in the first place.
“So these four weeks will just provide me a really good opportunity to actually go over and work on some things and try and get better, and then we’ll see what happens from there.”
Post Yorkshire training stint, Vlaeminck hopes to catch the end of the T20 World Cup in London from the stands before returning home to rejoin Victoria and build up towards the Women’s National Cricket League season, which is set to start in early September.
She’s also eager to catch up with her mates in the Australian squad, who will play two matches at Headingley throughout the group stage of the tournament.
Reflecting on her return in the Green v Gold game, Vlaeminck admitted it had been strange to came her comeback via a rare red-ball match.
However, having narrowly missed out on being cleared for the end of Victoria’s domestic 50-over season, getting some game time under her belt before the end of the 2025-26 summer was a relief.
“It was probably a bit of an interesting way to come back into it, playing a three-day game after not having played for so long, but it was literally the only game of cricket left on the calendar for the season,” Vlaeminck said.
“The thought of going through another whole off-season into pre-season not having played (despite) being able to play, it just felt hard.
“It was really good that Flegs (selector Shawn Flegler) and the crew could get me up for that, and I was just pretty carefully managed through it, but it was an unbelievable feeling.
“I hadn’t played for so long and it’s been so interrupted coming back – I’d get back to bowling, and then the shoulder wouldn’t cooperate, and we tried a fair few times.
“I was pretty nervous about just getting through, so it was nice just to be able to tick that game off, get 12 overs down, and then I had a couple of weeks just to reflect and put my feet up and just take a big deep breath.”
Vlaeminck was cut from Cricket Australia’s contract list in April following a torrid run of foot and shoulder injuries, with national selector Shawn Flegler describing it as a “really tough” call.
However, he made it clear it would not preclude her from playing for Australia, insisting she would be back in the mix as soon as she was able to string a run of games together.
For Vlaeminck, however, the priority is first and foremost on playing as much cricket as possible for Victoria and in the Big Bash in 2026-27.
“I’ve obviously done a fair whack on the sidelines, in the gym and stuff, so I’m just really enjoying bowling and actually being around the group,” Vlaeminck said.
“I think it’s probably one of the hardest things about being in rehab, you spend so much time like away from the group, and even though you try and still be social and still be part of it, it’s not quite the same as being around the nets and during harder sessions and stuff.
“To be able to look at that (training) schedule and just do what’s on the schedule, I’m looking forward to that.”
The Bendigo product’s raw pace and experience will be a welcome boost for Victoria, who are coming off the worst season in the state’s history.
They finished winless on the bottom of the table, while a one-point penalty for slow over rates added insult to injury as they ended the season with negative points.
Vlaeminck said the group had already gone through an open and honest review and were determined to turn their fortunes around in 2026-27.
“It was frustrating,” she said of the 2025-26 season.
“We know we were better than that, and we’ve got more talent in our squad than we put out.
“We had some really thorough chats and reviews at the end of the season and a few key things came out of it.
“Firstly, what we produced wasn’t acceptable, and we weren’t proud of that, so that’s the first part.
“Then both as a playing staff and as a support staff, we both had areas that we addressed that we want to work on and improve.
“I think the most exciting thing for us is we’ve got such a young group now who are genuinely motivated in their own careers, so just being able to bring that together as a group and knowing what we produced wasn’t acceptable, but we have such a good motivation and drive within our group to change that.”
