Alyssa Healy in quest to be nation’s next skipper

Alyssa Healy opens up about the first women’s Big Bash game at the SCG and her ambition to be Australian captain.

Rachael Haynes, Christine McLoughlin and Alyssa Healy. Picture: John Feder/The Australian

Alyssa Healy has never hidden her hope of one day being Australia’s next captain.

This week at the SCG, to promote the first women’s Big Bash game, and to celebrate the growth of the women’s sports network ­Minerva, Healy was open about her ambition.

While she has filled in as Australian captain in the past, with the departure of Meg Lanning she has now put her hand up to be considered for the position.

“I think obviously Meg retiring leaves a big gap that needs to be filled,” Healy said this week at the SCG to promote the first women’s Big Bash game, and to celebrate the growth of the women’s sports network ­Minerva.

“I think the group’s got an amazing opportunity to sort of re-evolve and take our game to another level.”

Healy, 33, is mentored off the field by Suncorp chair Christine McLoughlin, via the Minerva Network, and she has backed the talented cricketer for the top job.

“I believe she’s gone from being an extraordinary player to an ­extraordinary leader,” McLoughlin said. “I know she’s applied her focus on becoming the best leader she can be.”

The Minerva Network is a women’s network that connects athletes to the corporate sector. After starting in 2016, co-founded by corporate leaders McLoughlin, Romilly Madew and Sam Mostyn, it now boasts nearly 700 female athletes and almost 400 mentors.

Tickets were selling well for the Sydney Sixers versus Sydney Thunder game and Healy was full of praise for the game finally being played on the SCG.

“The WBBL is one of the best domestic competitions in the world and the Sydney Sixers and the Sydney Thunder are two really iconic teams,” she said. “So the opportunity to get back in and play at the SCG and go back to the bigger stadiums I think is a really exciting move and I think it’s a great opportunity to continue to attract new fans as well.”

While the impact of the ­Matilda’s is often spoken about, it’s not forgotten that 87,000 people filled the MCG to watch the women’s World Cup in 2020, just two days before “the world shutting down” because of Covid.

It cost the game momentum but Healy is confident it will only keep building.

“Any sort of momentum or marketing or gain we could have got from that was sort of lost in that two year period where everyone in the world really struggled,” Healy said. “But I think the beauty of the women’s sport at the moment is, I think, we can sort of leverage off one another.