TENNIS stayaway Ash Barty has trained with Queensland’s women’s cricket team, another sign her exile will continue from the sport in which she earned more than $600,000 a year as a 17-year-old.

Barty trained on Saturday morning with the Queensland Fire team at Allan Border Field and has told cricket coaches she likes the idea of playing a team sport.

Barty stepped away from the WTA Tour 11 months ago, giving little public explanation other than she wanted to spend some time with her family in Ipswich and decide if she wanted to continue to travel the world.

The former world No. 2 tennis junior impressed Fire players with her aptitude for fielding and batting for someone who has not played competitive cricket.

Fire coach Andy Richards told Barty, who won the Wimbledon junior girls championship at the advanced age of 15 and three months, she would be welcomed back if she was keen and it is expected she will return in coming weeks.

media_camera Ashleigh Barty coached juniors in tennis in 2014/

Queensland Cricket, which runs two senior premier grade competitions in Brisbane, would help her with a suggested pathway should she wish to pursue cricket as a sport.

Barty, 19, coached juniors in tennis last year and last summer played some matches on the state teams league.

Tennis Australia has sought to give Barty, one of Australian sport’s most intriguing stories, space and as much encouragement as possible to make her own decision during her time away from a sport to which she had devoted her life for so many years.

Barty has been loath to discuss her reasons for taking a break from tennis, with four requests from The Courier-Mail for an interview since, either to her or via Tennis Australia, being rejected.

Barty thought of dipping her toe into the water with cricket soon after she was invited to address the Australian women’s cricket team in Brisbane about life as an elite athlete.

She told national cricket centre female high performance manager Shawn Flegler that she liked the idea of playing a team sport.

Barty earned $US540,652 in official prizemoney in 2013, the year in which she, at the age of 17, and Casey Dellacqua made three Grand Slam doubles finals.

She would not be playing cricket for similar money.

Unless she makes an international team, Barty would be in line for a $7000 a season contract for playing for the Fire, with a place in a Women’s Big Bash League team worth up to $10,000.

A nimble, athletic 166cm, the former Australian Fed Cup player impressed cricket coaches on Saturday with her suitability to fielding and throwing, and as an elite tennis player her ball-tracking sight would translate somewhat to batting.

Barty’s most recent Twitter posts have been to encourage the Southern Stars team playing for the women’s Ashes trophy.