PCA PRESS RELEASE
Northern Diamonds Head Coach on power of ‘Talk to Teammates’.
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Former England international, Danielle Hazell has reiterated the importance of speaking out and has praised social media platforms for allowing her to keep in touch with her former teammates.
Hazell was one of six PCA members who launched the Talk to Teammates campaign back in January and has explained how a small message on social media or WhatsApp can spiral into longer conversations with the people she played with across her nine-year international career.
“It was really nice to be asked and get involved with the Talk to Teammates campaign. For me it certainly sparked a few conversations and hopefully through that I’ve been able to help one or two people along the way.
“It’s sometimes just as simple as a hello to start the conversation, or commenting on people’s social media, seeing what they’re doing and a few hours later you find that you’ve been on your phone the whole time catching up.”
Hazell represented her country 141 times, before retiring in 2019 and subsequently became Head Coach at Yorkshire Diamonds in 2019 and more recently Northern Diamonds in 2020 – one of the eight new domestic women’s regional centres.
Starting her role at the beginning of the pandemic was “difficult” admits Hazell. However, the 32-year old has ensured that her current squad have tackled any isolation issues with regular calls across different video friendly platforms.
“We had to quickly work out that we can’t leave the girls out in the wilderness for a couple months, so it was all about adapting to different methods of communication to ensure we were keeping in touch with them.”
– #TalkToTeammates –
The Talk to Teammates campaign was created by the PCA and the Professional Cricketers’ Trust to help combat isolation and loneliness in lockdown. Play your part by reaching out to someone who may need a call at the moment, and spread the word on social media by using the hashtag #TalkToTeammates.
Finding things difficult at the moment? Reach out for support via our dedicated Confidential Helpline, available 24/7 free of charge for all PCA members.
Find out more about the Professional Cricketers’ Trust.
