Australian women’s cricket team are bringing home more than the Ashes

What the Australian cricket team achieved over the past week was another iconic moment in our nation’s rich history with the game. But it’s what comes next that really matters for the future of the sport, writes Karina Keisler.

The Australian women’s cricket team aren’t just bringing home the Ashes, they’re bringing hope too.

Hope to older generations that the decades-long fight for opportunity, recognition and fairness is finally yielding positive results.

Hope to youngsters who know that with hard work and persistence, they might one day emulate the feats of Meg Lanning, Ellyse Perry and the other inspirational role models who make up this team.

I’ve been fortunate enough to witness one of Australia’s best sporting teams at play over the past week, and what a spectacle to behold. I’m not a traditional cricket devotee, but I’d challenge any Aussie to watch Lanning’s innings of 133 in the T20 International at Chelmsford and not feel the chest swell, the face all but crack from that smile that won’t go away.

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Seeing Perry break T20 records in Brighton with 1000 runs and 100 wickets was no less exciting — something no man or woman has previously achieved in the rich history of cricket.

Meg Lanning plays a shot during the England versus Australia IT20 match. Picture: Henry Browne/Getty

England’s coach stated that the difference between the two sides was nothing more than ‘God given talent’. Really? What about a hat tip to the hard work put in by the players and their support team? Or to the investment Cricket Australia is making in player and game development?

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In 2017, Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers’ Association negotiated a pioneering pay equity policy for players, making cricket the most lucrative elite sport in Australia. This money doesn’t just reward the women for their time, it enables them to invest the hours and energy necessary to develop and play the way they did in this Ashes series, in the World Cup they fought and won last year in the West Indies and in every display you’ll see of them from the international stage to the Big Bash to the WNCL.

Ellyse Perry bowls a ball during the England v Australia Women's IT20 match. Picture: Henry Browne/Getty

Since their first recorded game in Australia in 1874, women have been breaking records and making the rules. They introduced overarm bowling more than 100 years ago because their long skirts got in the way of the underarm movement. They played their first Test in 1934 when an England team paid their own way to tour Australia, and the first women’s Cricket World Cup was played in 1973, two years ahead of the men.

Today, six out of 10 young players signing up for cricket are girls, and two of the top three favourite W/BBL players are women. In 2018-19, registered female participation grew by 14 per cent, including 873 new girls’ teams taking the field and females now making up 30 per cent of cricket participants in Australia.

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And there’s still more to come.

In 200 days, Melbourne will host the women’s T20 World Cup in what could be a world-record breaking event.

The record attendance for a women’s sports event is 90,185 at the 1999 women’s soccer World Cup final between US and China at California’s Rose Bowl.

Let’s fill the MCG for the final on March 8 — which doubles as International Women’s Day — and honour our amazing female athletes with a world record crowd.

Karina Keisler is the head of public affairs at Cricket Australia.