Women’s game has come so far, but time to address next steps

When I was a teenager coming up through the cricket pathway, I didn’t even know there was an Australian women’s team. 

That says a lot about the amount of promotion our team got back then! Plus, how much things have changed since.  

Women’s cricket was considered a hobby, not a career, back when I debuted in 2012.

My first national contract was worth $5000 and for the first four years of my career as an Australian cricketer, I was on Centrelink.

I was even part of the whole Robodebt saga. I remember getting slugged with this $5,500 debt that I owed - and at the time, being poor, I was like, ‘How the hell am I supposed to pay this amount?’

From Centrelink to the professional era

It was the new Memorandum of Understanding in 2017, which included women alongside the men for the first time, that changed everything. 

The financial changes were awesome. That was the first time in my life I could go off Centrelink and that was a big shift which just gave me a bit of stability.  

From a cricket perspective, the MoU brought in minimum standards, accountability for every state and we had better people come into the sport in terms of coaching, strength and conditioning and physios. Suddenly, when I came home from an Australian tour, I wasn't lacking for support anymore.

For someone like me who has dodgy knees, that access to physios has definitely prolonged my career. The way things were handled physio-wise early days, there was super limited access and we sometimes had to pay for it ourselves or at least try and cover the gap, which from a money perspective wasn't really possible.

And then comes in the ego of pretending you're okay, because you can't afford to go to the physio, which is pretty sad.

Now, we know we're fortunate that if we need a scan, we're going to get in pretty quick, and we get the top-of-the-line doctors and surgeons.

From that perspective, it’s absolutely kept me on the park.

When I made my debut at North Sydney Oval in 2012, there were maybe a hundred people in the crowd. Fifty of them were probably family and 50 were loyal fans.

It's a completely different world now and so far, the peak of that has been 86,174 people at the 2020 T20 World Cup final.

I was part of the sceptical crew that were going, 'We've barely got a thousand to other games, how are we supposed to fill the 'G?'. But it also now sets the bar of going, 'if we do market the hell out of this, this is what's achievable'.

The 2024-25 Ashes are a massive opportunity

Looking ahead to the next decade, marketing and scheduling are going to be crucial. 

Around the world, we’re seeing massive crowds attending cricket and soccer games in England, at cricket games in India, and the Matildas are selling out huge grounds at home.

For us, we're probably beyond playing the boutique grounds here now, but that is something we struggle with in Australia – we have these big major stadiums, or we have little grounds, but we don't have the in-between. And that’s what makes the Ashes in England so damn good, those 12,000-seat stadiums that sound like 40,000 because they're full.

But that’s the next step for us, getting into the stadiums, and it's a super tough one because while getting 20,000 at the MCG is great, it's not going to look great.

I don't know the answer is, but next summer’s Ashes presents a massive opportunity to be ambitious.

Everybody loves the rivalry between England and Australia, whether it's cricket or soccer or whatever, it's the ultimate. I think the feistiness between the men's Ashes last year will follow on to our series here in Australia. While we retained the Ashes last time, we didn't win them, and we've got a point to prove.

It’s a perfect chance to market the wahoo out of it, get us in the good stadiums and really put some money behind it because this could be an absolute cracker.

We have to be okay with losing (sometimes!)

One thing holding the game back right now is global depth.

There’s no point in it being the same big four nations dominating. World Cups are generally what get people tuning in the most and if you can predict the same top four from the get-go, that sucks.

We speak about it being an evolution for Australia after we lost the World Cup semi-final in 2017, which it was. But one loss at one major tournament and suddenly we're reinventing the wheel. That's crazy right? No other team in any other sport is going to do that.

But we went, 'Holy crap, we've not made a final, we need to change’.

Which is cool, I admire that drive. But if we’re winning every game, it shows that the global game is not where it should be.

So as much as losing sucks, it's going to be a part of the game when everyone else is getting better and that brings in that unpredictable element that will get people excited in the game.

We have to be okay that we're not going to win every game, and we're not going to have that amazing win percentage that Meg Lanning had as captain.

But that takes global change, that takes minimum standards that the ICC need to put in place for smaller nations, which is hard, I know. But making sure that there's some accountability there is important.

We're going to Bangladesh for a bilateral series and it's a start.

In 10 years from now, I want that depth. I want the top 12 teams in the world to be competitive in every format.

If we can have competitive World Cups – and sure, there is always the odd shock loss to someone – but a genuine tournament where anyone can win that World Cup, I think that's your ideal scenario.

I also want to see our domestic players being able to play full-time cricket. Yes, the top ones can just play cricket if they have both Big Bash and state contracts, but I want our state-only players to also be able to play cricket full-time.

That will add depth and talent and will mean more girls maybe choosing cricket over other sports, knowing they can still play just domestically and earn a living.