Australian cricket star Rachael Haynes opens up on the pressure of a home World Cup and what the Matildas can expect

For every piece of progress, our top female athletes are still dealing with widespread inequality. Rachael Haynes opens up on the exhausting and frustrating process of constantly pushing for change.

Katy Perry performs on stage with the Australian cricket team

I’ll never forget the moment I walked out onto the MCG for the T20 World Cup final back in 2020. We’d spent so long preparing and working with the pressure to ‘Fill the G’. At one point all the lights went out and the crowd of 86,000 lit up the stadium with their phones. The sea of lights and the atmosphere that night was incredible.

Growing up I’d only really been able to watch men’s sport on TV. It’s such a huge part of the Aussie life but as a child I was always confused about why I couldn’t find a women’s side to watch. It was so hard to find. It wasn’t on TV, it wasn’t in newspapers and we didn’t have social media. Women’s sport was almost invisible.

Fast forward 20 years and look how far we have come. We’re seeing billboards around the country hyping up the Matildas, women’s sport is on prime time TV, matches are selling out around the country and, for so many women, they’re now able to call themselves professional athletes.

Rachael Haynes and Sophie Molineux of Australia celebrate with the trophy

In sport and society in general, many women are experiencing change for the better. The traditional roles placed on females are evolving and the narrative of women’s sport is improving. That said, there’s still plenty more to do and unfortunately this change is not consistent across all countries and communities.

We talk about glass ceilings women have to punch through in all industries, the change is happening, but when you’re in the thick of it, it feels like it’s taking an eternity.

Long before 2020, we believed in our product, in our team and what we could achieve. We didn’t doubt what we could do. Then we had that night at the MCG and the public caught a glimpse of who we were and what we were capable of. The next step is ensuring people understand these women are not just incredible once every four years, it’s day to day, week to week and month to month.

We shouldn’t have to win a World Cup or a gold medal to be noticed. It feels like for female athletes you have to be the best and reach the pinnacle to be seen. That needs to change.

SEXISM AND PAVING THE WAY

It’s an exhausting and frustrating process pushing for change and feeling like you move two steps forward then one step back. For every piece of progress there are still things taking place that are unequal, or grounded in traditions which exclude segments of the community.

When I’ve faced sexism, I reflect on the courage and commitment of the generations before me - I can only imagine what they faced. I hope what my former teammates and I are doing today can make the future even better for the next generation.

While it’s sometimes frustrating to wait, in cricket we are starting to make real progress and our push for gender equity is something to be proud of. We’re not there yet, but we are certainly moving in an exciting direction. Rising tides lift all boats and I hope that what we are doing can help other sports and in turn what Australia is doing can help other nations.

The Australian women's cricket team on stage with Katy Perry . Pic: Michael Klein

There also has to be a shift also in how women’s sport is covered. Athletes don’t want to be talked about because of the way they look, they want to be critiqued on their performance. It’s a source of pride when female sport is treated in a similar vein to men’s and with this is an expectation, they will address poor performances and form, we won’t always be seen in a positive light. It’s not always easy to cop when negative press happens for the first time, but to me, it means the public and the media is invested in your story and taking you seriously.

WINNING AT HOME

Winning in 2020 did an enormous amount for women’s cricket and became an iconic moment.

In hindsight it was an incredibly unique experience to go through, the expectations on us challenged every part of our skills as athletes.

‘Fill the G’ was the marketing campaign they put in front of us 18 months out. We’d only just won in the Caribbean and we were launched straight into this. We knew it wasn’t going to happen without us making the final. The room fell silent when they told us, already the pressure was enormous.

2020 ICC Women's T20 World Cup final at the MCG between Australia and India. Rachael Haynes in action. Picture: Mark Stewart

We knew how hard reaching a World Cup final was but when you have that added burden of being on home soil and a massive marketing campaign it’s like nothing we’d ever been through.

‘Luckily’ we dropped our first game that tournament. Losing focused us. We spoke about how we were feeling and the fact we weren’t handling the pressure well. Some thrived on the extra attention and media spotlight, for others it was distracting and didn’t get the best out of them performance wise. We had frank conversations about our roles and adopted individual plans to handle the mental pressure. Doing this allowed us to actually enjoy ourselves.

MESSAGE FOR THE MATILDAS

Nothing prepares you for a home World Cup, nothing.

Kiss goodbye to anonymity, you will be stopped in the street, asked for photos and cheered everywhere you go – which is lovely – but was something I’d never experienced before.

I’d encourage all the squad, as much as possible, to enjoy the moments, take it all in. Not many athletes get the honour of being in a major event on home soil. Prepare as much as you can mentally and ask how will this impact you? Talk about it as a team.

Billie Jean King says ‘pressure is a privilege’. For me that epitomises how you want to think of a home event. People genuinely care about how you go, the country is behind you. Find a way as a team and as an individual to make this a positive experience for you. Ride the wave with the nation.

GO AUSSIES!

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