New book puts female pioneers in clearer focus

There are some neat symmetries attached to today's launch of the eye-catching book 'Clearing Boundaries – The Rise of Australian Women's Cricket' at the Sydney Cricket Ground.

It's the same venue (albeit then known as the Association Ground) that hosted Australia's first formal women's cricket match between invitational teams 'Siroccos' and 'Fernleas' on 8 March, 1886.

It's two years since the hugely successful current iteration of the national women's team won their fourth T20 World Cup, and it's the week in which the ground-breaking Rebel WBBL|06 competition reaches its climax with three finals in the New South Wales capital.

But perhaps most poignantly, it also coincides with market research results that show the Australian women's cricket team retains the strongest emotional connection for national outfits among fans in a country where attachment to sporting entities can often border on reverential.

The fifth annual online survey of almost 4,000 sports fans conducted last month by research agency True North produced benchmark emotional connection scores for national and state sporting teams, as well as clubs competing in winter codes such as men's and women's AFL and NRL and Super Netball.

Among the national teams, the Australian women's cricket team ranked first ahead of the men's T20 and Test cricket outfits followed by Matildas (women's soccer) and women's rugby sevens.

The Socceroos, the national men's football team, ranked seventh while the Wallabies (men's rugby) were listed 10th.

It confirms the place won by women's cricket in the national consciousness, and completes a remarkable journey for the women's game that was shrouded in obscurity in its early decades as the reproduction of rarely-before-seen photos in 'Clearing the Boundaries' starkly reveals.

As well as an illustration of the historic first match in Sydney – in which the rival teams were captained by Nellie and Louisa Gregory, daughters of Australia Test player Ned Gregory whose brothers Dave and Syd also represented their country – the 230-page book contains more than 200 photos.

A number of those were among the 42,000 historic cricket-related photographs from the former Fairfax Media archive that had were sent to the United States for digitisation in 2013 only to end up in the hands of private sellers.

They were eventually bought by former Cricket Australia chairman Wally Edwards and donated to the Bradman Foundation (of which Edwards is a director), and many of them feature in 'Clearing Boundaries' which is produced by the Bradman Museum in partnership with Churchill Press.

"A lot of these photos, nobody would have seen," Edwards told cricket.com.au last week.

"And that … made me realise that one of the most significant elements missing from Australian cricket history is documentation of the women's game, particularly in photographic form."

Among the striking historic images are photographs of the 'New South Wales Team of Lady Cricketers' who played a match against a troupe of male theatre actors at the SCG in 1898, and the team for the first women's Ashes series against England played in Australia in 1934-35.

In addition to the inaugural women's team to tour England in 1937, it pays tribute to pioneers of the game in Australia such as inaugural captain Margaret Peden, record-breaking all-rounder Betty Wilson and the nation's first Indigenous Test player, Faith Thomas (nee Coulthard).

The 1951 England touring party is shown posing for a group photograph against the backdrop of the famous gasometer at The Oval in south London, and playing before packed terraces at Scarborough Oval which was Yorkshire's auxiliary home ground away from Headingley.

Stunning action photographs also capture magic moments from earlier women's internationals at Test grounds including the WACA (Perth), Lord's (London), Eden Gardens (Kolkata), Galle International Stadium (Sri Lanka) and this year's record crowd of more than 86,000 for the ICC World T20 final at the MCG.

And 'Clearing Boundaries' also records the playing statistics of the 176 women Test players, the 142 ODI and 53 T20I representatives to have worn Australia's colours on the international cricket field from 1934 to today.

Belinda Clark, who led Australia in all three formats during her celebrated 15-year playing career and who steps down from her role as CA's Executive General Manager Community Cricket next week, welcomed the latest publishing project from the Bradman Foundation and Museum.

"Recognition of this important past is critical to plotting the course and growing opportunities for women and girls to simply play cricket," Clark wrote in her foreword for 'Clearing Boundaries'.

"The women's game is rich with firsts, innovations and pioneers that have shaped the sport we know and love today.

"The pictures of strong female role models striding out to the middle for those early Tests are heart-warming and inspiring.

"The Australian teams following in their footsteps ever since have been full of the same pride and passion.

"From Margaret Peden to (current skipper) Meg Lanning, and everyone in between, we are blessed with Australian women who have made such a positive impact on the game of cricket."

'Clearing Boundaries' was launched at the SCG today by former Australia representatives Mel Jones and Lisa Sthalekar, Bradman Foundation Executive Director Rina Horne and author Fiona Bollen.

A portion of money raised from sales will go to the Bradman Museum, and copies can be purchased from bookstores as well as online at www.bradman.com.au.