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Cricket sensation Beth Mooney.

Alistair Brightman

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BETH Mooney's cricketing hero is Australian women's captain Jodie Fields.

The 15-year-old wicketkeeper from Hervey Bay has now got the chance to maybe call Fields a team-mate one day.

Mooney has been named as one of eight rookies, the largest contingent ever selected, in the squad for the state women's team, the Queensland Fire, for the 2009-10 season.

Fields is the Queensland Fire captain.

While this is Mooney's first call-up to the senior ranks, she is no stranger to standing behind the stumps wearing a maroon cap for Queensland.

The Xavier Catholic College student captained the Queensland under-15 team last season and she was also a member of the state under-17 team.

Mooney, who played one game for the Mariners A-grade men's team in the Fraser Coast Cricket competition last year, played in the nationals for both the under-15 and under-17 teams.

She is also a member of the Australian under-18 women's squad.

Apart from her ability with her wicket keeping gloves, Mooney, who started playing the game when she was 7 while growing up in Victoria, has shown plenty of promise when she has a bat in her hands.

She has already scored two representative hundreds, the best being 115 not out while playing for Wide Bay.

It doesn't come as any surprise that Mooney says she is thrilled with her selection, something she admits that she didn't have a clue about when she got a call from Queensland Cricket headquarters in Brisbane.

“I was wondering what they were talking about,” Mooney said.

“Apparently I was supposed to have been told I'd been selected by the coach before I got this call but I hadn't - it was a shock but a nice one at that.

“I just cannot believe that I will be training and playing alongside some of the best players in the country - it's unreal.”

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