Ellyse Perry could end her cricket career at the LA Olympics before a role in running the game awaits

Ellyse Perry’s nous is such that one Cricket Australia exec believes the superstar could run the game after retiring. SHANNON GILL looks at what’s ahead for the superstar, including the prospect of an Olympic swan song.

Generational player, eight cricket World Cup wins and a FIFA World Cup goal make for an extraordinary resume, now Ellyse Perry has a chance to add ‘Olympian’ to her list of accomplishments.

“It’s definitely something I’d love to do, but it’s also not something I’m pitching my career to,” Perry said.

The announcement that cricket would be included in the 2028 Los Angeles Games was met with excitement as players hurriedly did the sums to work out how old they’d be when the chance for Olympic selection came around.

Perry and her teammates experienced the Commonwealth Games in 2022, winning gold no less, but she admits that the Olympics would be another level.

“That experience a couple of years ago, how much everyone loved playing in it and how much that medalling in those Games really meant … so the Olympics is probably ten-fold on that.”

Perry says the Olympic Games would be next level, if she was able to get there. Picture: Matt King – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images

Perry will be 37 at the LA Olympics, but the way she’s reinvented her T20 game over the past few years is a sign of her inner drive to continue for much longer.

While the retired Meg Lanning has spoken openly about the challenges of the international cricket treadmill, Perry’s ability to stay mentally fresh after 17 years of international cricket is as wondrous as her skill execution.

Things like a first MCG Test match for her team next summer and that Los Angeles possibility stir up the pioneer in Perry.

“The landscape at the moment is that there’s always something new and exciting for the game and I feel like that’s probably been the case for the last decade,” she says.

“It certainly makes it really easy to go around for another season when there’s new and exciting things on the horizon.”

“I’ll wake up in 2028 and if I’m still there, it would be great.”

Perry notes that staying in the moment has been crucial to the longevity of her career, so she’s happy being there.

Yet her involvement in the Australian Cricket Women and Girls Action Plan launched this week is further evidence of what could be to come after playing, even if she can’t see “something formal” at this stage.

Ellyse Perry at the Cricket Australia's Women and Girls Action Plan Launch this week. Picture: Morgan Hancock/Getty Images for Cricket Australia

Perry sat on the steering committee and couldn’t have impressed its chair (and Cricket Australia executive general manager of community cricket and capability), James Allsopp, any more.

“She didn’t miss one meeting, she was even checking in from the IPL in India,” he says.

“To have a current player who is that engaged in the process is pretty incredible. She’s strategic and she understands the game at all levels.”

Far from just having her name attached to the plan for promotional purposes, she was as enthusiastic in her application to it as Allsopp’s reaction.

“I was honoured to be involved and loved the process,” she says.

“Being able to sit down and listen to a vast variety of stakeholders and their involvement in the game and how all those things come together and how important it is to collaborate across each facet of the game … it’s really easy as a player to be sort of insular and focus on the team and the high performance aspect of it, but there’s so much more that goes into it.”

Christina Matthews is the role model in that sense.

Former Australian cricketer, and WACA CEO, Christina Matthews speaks at the MCG this week. Picture: Morgan Hancock/Getty Images for Cricket Australia

The Australian player’s administrative career started while still playing in 1991. She just signed off after 13 years as chief executive of the Western Australian Cricket Association (WACA).

“She’s a very intelligent woman, she thinks about things and I’ve always found conversations with her interesting,” Matthews says, having also sat on the steering committee with Perry.

“I’m not sure if administration is something she would want to do, but any role she would do very well and cricket should do everything it can to ensure she stays in the game.”

Allsopp is one who will do everything in his power to ensure that happens, whenever that day comes.

“She could run cricket in Australia one day.”

Olympics or not, Perry’s time as a groundbreaker in Australian sport is far from over.

Originally published as Ellyse Perry could end her cricket career at the LA Olympics before a role in running the game awaits