Alyssa Healy named captain of Australian women’s cricket team

Australia has named its next international cricket captain with Meg Lanning’s successor revealed for all three formats.

Star wicketkeeper-batter Alyssa Healy has been named the captain of Australia’s all-conquering women’s cricket team across all three formats after the retirement of long-time skipper Meg Lanning.

The 33-year-old has led Australia since June in series against England, Ireland and West Indies, and has now been handed the role full-time.

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Tahlia McGrath, fresh from leading the Adelaide Strikers to consecutive women’s Big Bash League titles, was named vice-captain and at 28 is positioned to eventually take over from Healy.

“I am honoured to accept the role of captain and am grateful for the opportunity to lead our team,” Healy said, who is married to Australian men’s pace spearhead Mitchell Starc.

“I’ve really enjoyed the support of the players over the past few months and their encouragement to continue to be who I am and lead the group like I normally would from within.

“It’s an exciting time to be involved with this team, we’re seeing the emergence of incredible young talent and are challenging ourselves to continually evolve as a group.”

Healy has captained Australia in Lanning’s absence. Photo by Martin Keep/Getty Images

Healy added that the selection process for the role and reinforced her desire to take the role with two World Cups coming up, starting with the T20 tournament in Bangladesh next year.

“(It) probably just ratified things in my own head about, ‘Yep, this is exactly what I want to do’. I want to help create a new legacy for this Australian team,” Healy said.

“It sort of gave me an opportunity that, ‘This is what I want to achieve. And this is where I’d like to take the group for a certain amount of time’.

“We can achieve great things in that time, but more so set it up for the next 10 years to be really successful.”

Well deserved. Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images for Cricket Australia

Lanning retired from the international game last month after almost a decade in charge, leading Australia to four Twenty20 World Cup titles, one 50-over World Cup triumph and a Commonwealth Games gold.

“Alyssa brings a wealth of experience to the role, and we have great confidence in her ability to successfully lead the Australian women’s team in tandem with Tahlia as vice-captain,” said Cricket Australia’s executive general manager Ben Oliver.

Lanning will continue to play in domestic competitions.

Healy will take the reins officially for Australia’s multi-format tour of India starting later this month starting with a Test on December 21, followed by three ODIs and three T20Is, finishing on January 9.

Originally published as Alyssa Healy named captain of Australian women’s cricket team