Ellyse Perry reaps the reward of personal evolution with WPL payday

Ellyse Perry was among the Aussies to earn a massive payday at the WPL auction but says the history-making day was about more than money.

Ellyse Perry is stoked with her own form and the growth of the game in general. Picture: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

Ellyse Perry concedes being pushed out of Australia‘s T20 team in recent years forced her to “change things” and she’s reaping the rewards in more ways than one.

Not only is the star all-rounder back as a mainstay of the team at the T20 World Cup, continuing an incredible streak of appearing at all eight tournaments since the first in 2009, she also cashed in at the Women’s Premier League auction.

Perry, 32, was the third highest-priced Australian picked up on the historic night, bought for $297,000 by Royal Challengers Bangalore, a reward for her decade of outstanding service to the game as much as her T20 resurgence.

Ellyse Perry is back in the groove. Picture: Marco Longari / AFP

Having been told to increase her batting power and strike rate by national selectors when she struggled to get back in the team after a serious hamstring injury at the 2020 World Cup, Perry starred in the WBBL late last year, finishing as the second-highest run-scorer in the competition and is once again the powerhouse player she has always been.

“I’ve been really fortunate to have experiences for a number of years now with this group and just the changing nature of the sport and the way that it’s been evolving,” she said ahead of Australia’s third group game against Sri Lanka.

“In a lot of ways, I’ve really enjoyed the challenge of the last couple of years. I think it’s sort of pushed me to kind of change the way that I’ve done things or find new ways to do things and evolve a little bit.

“So, from a personal perspective, it’s always awesome to be here.”

Perry has long been one of the strongest voices in the women’s game and could only marvel at the magnitude of Monday night’s auction, with two teammates – Ash Gardner and Beth Mooney – picking up over $900,000 between them.

But for Perry it wasn’t just about the money.

“I don’t think any of us ever led the conversation in terms of monetary value. I think there’s something at play that’s much bigger than that,” she said.

“Of course, remuneration and the chance to earn that kind of money is wonderful, but much larger than that I think is just the general growth of the sport right around the world.

Australian players Ash Gardner, Megan Schutt and Kim Garth watch the WPL auction on a phone. Picture: Twitter

“And I think now that women are starting to have a really strong presence in the Indian sort of market and also in the Indian game, that is so much more important than any kind of dollar value that is placed on any player.

“So I think from that perspective, the chat was just around wanting to be involved.

“Of course, like after the auction, those discussions come in about certain value and how much people are sold for, which in itself is a weird kind of concept to swallow.

“But I just think it’s so much bigger than that. So, the discussion from us as a group was just what it’s going to do for the game, not so much what it’s going to do for an individual.”