Roberta de Melo Moretti Avery (born 9 July 1985) is a Brazilian
cricket
Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...
er and the former captain of the
national women's cricket team.
Career
Early life and career
Moretti was born in
Poços de Caldas
Poços de Caldas is a Municipalities of Brazil, municipality in the south of Minas Gerais state, Brazil, in the microregion of the same name. Its estimated population in 2020 was 168,641 inhabitants. The city is known for its hot springs.
Histor ...
,
Minas Gerais
Minas Gerais () is one of the 27 federative units of Brazil, being the fourth largest state by area and the second largest in number of inhabitants with a population of 20,539,989 according to the 2022 Brazilian census, 2022 census. Located in ...
into a sporting family: her parents played
golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...
. She initially played golf in her hometown, until the age of 16, being part of Brazilian team for the Youth South American team, in
Uruguay
Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...
2000 competition. She then spent some time in the UK, before returning to Brazil in 2010.
During her brief stay in UK, she approached Liam Cook and asked him to conduct few coaching sessions for her.
Her alternative sport was
handball
Handball (also known as team handball, European handball, Olympic handball or indoor handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...
, as a
goalkeeper
In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...
for Poços de Caldas team until the age of 17. Moretti did not play cricket until the age of 27, when she was invited by her spouse to join the soft ball league, playing alongside the first participants from the
Brazilian Cricket Confederation
The Brazilian Cricket Confederation (; CBC) is the official governing body of the sport of cricket in Brazil. Its current headquarters is in Brasília, Brazil. The association is Brazil's representative at the International Cricket Council and be ...
development program. She was inspired to pursue her interest in the sport of cricket due to her husband's involvement in cricket projects.
She was part of Cricket Poços team on the first Brazilian Women's National league, in 2013 and subsequently selected as part of the national team in 2014, making her debut in April 2014.
In addition, she also runs a fruit export business in Brazil. She currently holds a key position as an administrator at Cricket Brazil. She also teaches the sport to kids in different schools during her spare time and also regarded as a fitness fanatic as she trains at least four hours per day at the high-performance centre.
International career
In 2014, Moretti was selected to be part of the national women's cricket team in Brazil. She was the first cricketer for Brazil, male or female, to score a century in a
Twenty20
Twenty20 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...
match.
Moretti had her breakthrough in golf in 2017, after being top 5 on National Ranking and selected for the Brazilian team for the Copa Los Andes, in Bolívia, and Copa Srta. Fay Crocker, in Uruguay, in 2017. She was also part of the Brazilian doubles on Taça Pee-Wee, played in São Fernando Golf Club,
Cotia
Cotia is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. It is part of the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo. The population is 274.413 (2022 est.) in an area of 323.99 km2. The city is at an elevation of 853 m. Cotia is linked with th ...
. Moretti retired from competitive golf in July 2018.
In March 2017, Moretti was named captain of Brazil's squad ahead of the Iguassu Cup, a bilateral tour played against Argentina. As an allusion to her relatively mature age and leading status in Brazilian cricket, she has been
nicknamed
A nickname, in some circumstances also known as a sobriquet, or informally a "moniker", is an informal substitute for the proper name of a person, place, or thing, used to express affection, playfulness, contempt, or a particular character trait ...
"Big Mom".
She was also invited to be a part of the CanAm team on Philadelphia Cricket Festival, captained by
Claire Taylor
Samantha Claire Taylor (born 25 September 1975) is a former cricketer who represented England women's cricket team, England more than 150 times between 1998 and 2011. A Batting order (cricket), top order Batting (cricket), batter,In women's c ...
in that year. CanAm was the only women's team in the men's competition.
Moretti made her
T20I
Twenty20 International (T20I) is a form of Twenty20 cricket, in which each team plays a single innings with a maximum of twenty overs. The matches are played between international teams recognized by the International Cricket Council (ICC). ...
debut for Brazil on 23 August 2018, against
Mexico
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
, in the opening fixture of the
2018 South American Women's Cricket Championship
The 2018 South American Women's Cricket Championship was held in Colombia from 23 to 26 August. The four teams that participated this year were the women's sides of Brazil women's national cricket team, Brazil, Chile women's national cricket t ...
. In the summer of 2019, she trained in England at the
Bexley Cricket Club. In October 2019, Brazil women won the
2019 South American Cricket Championship
The 2019 South American Cricket Championship was a cricket tournament held in Lima, Peru from 3 to 6 October 2019. A men's and a women's tournament were held, with 2019 being the sixteenth edition of the men's South American Cricket Championshi ...
, with Moretti finishing as the leading run-scorer of the tournament with 116 runs in five matches.
In April 2021, during the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, Moretti took to social media to discuss mental health issues during the pandemic. The following month, she was one of forty women selected to be mentored for the ICC 100% Cricket Future Leaders Programme.
References
Further reading
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External links
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*
Noughtie Child Podcast: Season 8 Episode 1 (4 December 2021)– includes interview of Roberta Moretti Avery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moretti Avery, Roberta
1985 births
Living people
Brazilian women cricketers
Brazil women Twenty20 International cricketers
Women cricket captains
Sportspeople from Poços de Caldas