| Women's cricket in Australia | |
|---|---|
 Women's Test Cricket. Anne Palmer (VIC) bowled, with Spear, Snowball and Partridge (England), 2nd Women's Test match in Sydney 1935. | |
| Country | Australia |
| Governing body | Cricket Australia |
| National team(s) | Australia |
While not being urged to avoid competition, women had few opportunities to compete in sport in Australia until the 1880s. After that date, new sporting facilities were being built around the country and many new sport clubs were created. [1]
Organised cricket has been played by women in Australia since no later than 1874 when the first recorded match took place in Bendigo. [lower-alpha 1] The founding mother of women's cricket in Australia was the young Tasmanian, Lily Poulett-Harris, who captained the Oyster Cove team in the league she created in 1894. Lily's obituary, from her death a few years later in 1897, states that her team was almost certainly the first to be formed in the colonies .
During the 1890s, cricket and rowing two of the most popular competitive sports for women in Australia. [1] Another of the first all women's sport clubs founded in Australia was the Rockhampton Ladies' Club. They were fielding a women's cricket team in the mid-1890s. The team wore dresses with long skirts and long sleeves, sashes attached to their uniform, tight belts and straw boater hats. [10]
One location where cricket was being played was Bundaberg, where a ladies' town team had been established that was competing until as late as 1909. Cricket players, like other female athletes of this era, dressed in ankle length skirts, wore long sleeved blouses, and wore a hat and tie. The uniforms made it difficult to play as they did not allow a full range of movement. [11] Another place where women played cricket on an all women's team was in Memerambi, a Queensland town that is to the southwest of Maryborough. In 1911, this team had several notable players including A. B. Postle who was the sister of the current world champion sprinter. By 1911, the skirts had changed to include fewer layers and allowed for greater movement of the legs. This improvement was offset by the need to wear wide brimmed hats. [1]
The Victorian Ladies' Cricket Association was founded in 1905 and disbanded in 1916 during the Great War. The Victorian Women's Cricket Association was formed in 1923. The Australian Women's Cricket Council was formed in 1931.
During the early part of the twentieth century, small towns in rural areas often lacked enough male players to have a full team. This problem was solved by allowing for mixed gendered teams. One town with a mixed gendered team was found in Croydon[ where? ] at the Croydon Villa Cricket Club. [12] The lack of players was also a problem in the bush. Mixed gendered teams were created as part of informal games at locations such as the Cooroy Showgrounds. [13] By the 1920s, women were playing cricket in outfits similar to men: Long white trousers, white sweaters and blouses. Batters had pads for their shins. The hats had smaller brims and were more fitted to their heads. This change in outfits allowed women a greater range of movement when they played the game. A female cricket team active during the 1920s was found in Toowoomba. [14]
In 1922, a committee in Australia investigated the benefits of physical education for girls. They came up with several recommendations regarding what sports were and were not appropriate for girls to play based on the level of fitness required. It was determined that for some individual girls that for medical reasons, the girls should probably not be allowed to participate in tennis, netball, lacrosse, golf, hockey, and cricket. Soccer was completely medically inappropriate for girls to play. It was medically appropriate for all girls to be able to participate in, so long as they were not done in an overly competitive manner, swimming, rowing, cycling and horseback riding. [15]
In 1933, the New South Wales Amateur Women's Sport Council was created by Gwendolen Game. The organisation brought together all the women's sporting bodies on the state level. Sports represented included New South Wales's women's field hockey, cricket, women's basketball, baseball, rowing and vigoro. A similar organisation covering similar sports had been created in Victoria in 1931. [16]
In 1934, the Victorian Women's Centennial Sports Carnival was held. The event was organised by the Victorian Women's Amateur Sports Council and held at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds. The purpose was to increase women's interest in sport by providing them opportunities to play. Sports that were included on the programme included cricket, field hockey, women's basketball, bowls, rowing, swimming, athletics, rifle shooting, baseball, golf, tennis and badminton. There were over 1,000 bowlers involved over the course a week. Cricket featured a match versus a visiting English side. Women's basketball featured a Victorian side playing against a representative all Australian side. There was a day for watersports such as swimming and rowing. A tennis tournament was held. A field hockey tournament featuring Australian, Kiwi and Fijian teams was played. [16]
In 1986, Lyn Larsen, at the age of 22, became the youngest captain ever of the Australian women's national cricket team. In 1988, the Australian women won the Cricket World Cup. [17]
In 1940, a study of 314 women in New Zealand and Australia was done. Most of the women in the study were middle class, conservative, Protestant and white. The study found that 183 participated in sport. The nineteenth most popular sport that these women participated in was cricket, with 2 having played the sport. The sport was tied with cricket, mountaineering, rowing, and surfing. [18]
Australian women's sports had an advantage over many other women's sport organisations around the world in the period after World War II. Women's sport organisations had largely remained intact and were holding competitions during the war period. This structure survived in the post war period. Women's sport were not hurt because of food rationing, petrol rationing, population disbursement, and other issues facing post-war Europe. [19]
The current 50-over limited-over domestic tournament for Women in Australia is the Women's National Cricket League (WNCL). The competition has been held since the 1996–97 season. [20] The league currently consists of seven teams: New South Wales Breakers, Queensland Fire, South Australian Scorpions, Tasmanian Roar, Victorian Spirit, Western Fury and ACT Meteors. [21]
The 2013-2014 Australian National Cricket Census showed that female participation in the sport was up 39% to 247,000, with females making up 22% of total cricket participants in Australia. [22]
A female Twenty20 league, the Women's Big Bash League (WBBL), has been aligned with the Mens Big Bash League (BBL) since the 2015–2016 season. The eight women's teams are: Perth Scorchers (WBBL), Hobart Hurricanes (WBBL), Brisbane Heat (WBBL), Adelaide Strikers (WBBL), Melbourne Stars (WBBL), Melbourne Renegades (WBBL), Sydney Sixers (WBBL) and Sydney Thunder (WBBL). Each team uses the same team name and colours as those of its male counterpart. [23]
Important current day ambassadors for women's cricket in Australia include Ellyse Perry, Meg Lanning, Alex Blackwell and Alyssa Healy. [23]
The first ashes game, occurred in 1934. When the AWCC (Australian Women's Cricket Council) sent an invitation to the WCA (Women's Cricket Association), inviting England to tour in Australia. The tour consisted of 14, 3-day test matches, in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. [24] [25] The first game being was played in Brisbane with a crowd of 1,500. England won the game by 9 wickets after a stunning performance from England's spinning allrounder Myrtle Maclagan who took 7 wickets for 10 runs. [26]
Not only do Australian women compete in cricket domestically, but also on the international stage. The Australian Women's Cricket Team (The Southern Stars) have competed at an international level in the short forms of the game since the first World Cup in 1973, in England. [27] They won their first world cup in 1978 and then claiming the title on another five occasions in 1982, 1988, 1997, 2005 and 2013. [27]
Since their first match in the 1973 World Cup the Southern Stars have played 254 ODIs (One Day Internationals), having 122 women represent Australia in the ODI team. [28]
Another short form of the game that the Stars are very competitive in is the Twenty20 competition. The Australian Women's Team have taken home the top trophy for the past three consecutive years at the Women's Twenty20 World Cup. [29] And resulting from their efforts this the Southern Stars received a pay rise making them the highest paid women's sporting team in Australia. [29]
The Australian women's national cricket team represent Australia in international women's cricket. Currently captained by Meg Lanning and coached by Shelley Nitschke, they are the top team in all world rankings assigned by the International Cricket Council (ICC) for the women's game.
Ellyse Alexandra Perry is an Australian sportswoman who has represented her country in cricket and association football. Having debuted for both the national cricket team and the national soccer team at the age of 16, she is the youngest Australian to play international cricket and the first to have appeared in both ICC and FIFA World Cups. Gradually becoming a single-sport professional athlete from 2014 onward, Perry's acclaimed cricket career has continued to flourish and she is now widely considered to be one of the greatest female players ever.
Field hockey has been played by men in Australia since 1901. By 1907, there were clubs in several states including New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, and Victoria. Women's field hockey was eventually represented by the Australian Institute of Sport, though the amount of support it received was less than the support the men received. The All Australian Women's Hockey Association was established in 1910 to govern the sport in Australia. in 2000, Women's Hockey Australia merged with the Australian Hockey Association to form Hockey Australia. The game has been played by women on the university and school level. Interstate matches were being played by 1909. The level of play on the interstate level is very high. The Australia women's national field hockey team, established in 1914, has placed highly in many competitions.
Women's sport in Australia started in the colonial era. Sport made its way into the school curriculum for girls by the 1890s. World War II had little impact on women's sport in the country. After the war, women's sport diversified as a result of new immigrants to the country. In the 1990s, the percentage of media coverage for women's sport on radio, television and in newspapers was not at parity with male sport. Basketball is nominally professional in Australia but players do not earn enough from the sport to compete full-time. Some Australians have gone overseas to play professional sport. Many television spectators for Australian sport are women. In person, netball has large percentage of female spectators. The Australian Federal and State governments have encouraged women to participate in all areas of sport.
While not being urged to avoid competition, women had few opportunities to compete in sport in Australia until the 1880s. After that date, new sporting facilities were being built around the country and many new sport clubs were created. Athletic events were being held in schools in Australia by the early part of the twentieth century. The Glennie School in Toowoomba was one school to host races for girls during their annual girls' sport day. During the 1920s, girls were able to run while wearing bloomers, instead of skirts. The first meeting for women's athletics took place in 1926 and was organised by the NSWAAA. The purpose of the meeting was to determine if it would be possible to send women to compete in the 1928 Summer Olympics based on merit. Only one female athlete was determined to be good enough to send. That was E.F. Robinson. The first women's national athletics body designed to govern the sport in Australia was founded in 1932 and was called the Australian Women's Amateur Athletic Union. It was designed to oversee state organisations in Victoria (1929), Queensland (1921), New South Wales (1932) and South Australia. (1932) The first Australian woman to travel overseas to compete was E.F. Robinson, who went to the 1928 Summer Olympics where she ran in the 100-metres. She came in third and was the only Australian female on the 1928 Australian Olympic team.
The first women's bowls match played in Australia took place in Stawell, Victoria, in October 1881. The first women's only bowls club was not created for another seventeen years, when the Rainsford Bowls Club was created on 16 December 1898 at the home of J. Rainsford Needham, who lived in Glenferrie, Victoria. The first women's bowls association was created in September 1907. The association was called the Victorian Ladies' Bowling Association, and was created by six Melbourne-based clubs. It was the first women's bowling association created the world.
Croquet has historically been a sport in Australia where men and women were able to compete on a level playing field.
While not being urged to avoid competition, women had few opportunities to compete in sport in Australia until the 1880s. After that date, new sporting facilities were being built around the country and many new sport clubs were created. One of the reasons women were encouraged to play croquet, tennis and golf during the late 1800s was because it was scene as beneficial to their health. These sports were also seen as passive, non-aggressive and non-threatening to the period's concepts of masculinity and femininity. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, women were allowed to be members of golf clubs but most women could not be because the game was too expensive to play. Women were also limited because of restrictions imposed upon them by the men who ran the clubs and courses. For example, at the Brisbane Golf Club in 1901, women were not allowed to become full members, only associate members, could not belong to any club committees and there were limited times when they could play. Women were allowed to play and did in places such as Willowburn, Queensland. Like other sports of the time, women wore long sleeved blouses and skirts that were ankle length. They also wore hats while they were playing.
While not being urged to avoid competition, women had few opportunities to compete in sport in Australia until the 1880s. After that point, new sporting facilities were being built around the country and many new sport clubs were created. During the 1900s in Australia, lacrosse became more socially acceptable for women to participate in. Subsequently, female participation rates rose in places like Queensland.
Shooting was an important skill for women in the bush to possess. It was encouraged as part of self-reliance. Rifle shooting as a sport was being played in Queensland by 1914.
While not being urged to avoid competition, women had few opportunities to compete in sport in Australia until the 1880s. After that date, new sporting facilities were being built around the country and many new sport clubs were created. For swimming, the rapid expansion of facilities took place during the 1880s and the 1890s. Compared to the past when the whole of the swimming community was made up of males, currently 55 percent of the Australian swimming membership is made up of women. Not only do females dominate swimming in the pool but there are more than 5,500 female coaches in the swimming world in Australian and over 2,000 female technical officials.
While not being urged to avoid competition, women had few opportunities to compete in sport in Australia until the 1880s. After that date, new sporting facilities were being built around the country and many new sport clubs were created. One of the reason women were encouraged to play croquet, tennis and golf during the late 1800s was because it was seen as beneficial to their health. These sports were also seen as passive, non-aggressive and non-threatening to the period's concepts of masculinity and femininity.
In the 1880s in Victoria, there were school competitions for girls involving interschool competitions for rounders, an early form of baseball. The competitions were abandoned in the 1890s. Girls who played rounders/baseball during the 1880s and 1890s were required to wear long sleeved shirts and long skirts. These restricted a player's ability to move.
Megan Schutt is an Australian cricketer who has played for the national team as a medium-fast bowler since 2012. Domestically, she plays for the South Australian Scorpions, for whom she debuted in 2009, and, since 2015, the Adelaide Strikers. She was the first cricketer to take a hat-trick for Australia in a Women's Twenty20 International (WT20I) match.
The Women's Big Bash League is the Australian women's domestic Twenty20 cricket competition. The WBBL replaced the Australian Women's Twenty20 Cup, which ran from the 2007–08 season through to 2014–15. The competition features eight city-based franchises, branded identically to the men's Big Bash League (BBL). Teams are made up of current and former Australian national team members, the country's best young talent, and up to three overseas marquee players.
Sophie Grace Molineux is an Australian cricketer from Bairnsdale, Victoria. A left-arm orthodox bowling all-rounder, Molineux has been a member of the national women's team since 2018. At domestic level, she currently plays for Victoria in the Women's National Cricket League (WNCL) and captains the Melbourne Renegades in the Women's Big Bash League (WBBL).
Tayla Jade Vlaeminck is an Australian cricketer who plays as a right-arm fast-medium bowler and right-handed batter for Australia, Victoria and Melbourne Renegades.
Darcie Rose Brown is an Australian cricketer who plays as a pace bowler for the South Australian Scorpions in the Women's National Cricket League, and for the Adelaide Strikers in the Women's Big Bash League (WBBL). She made her international debut for the Australia women's cricket team in March 2021, and earned a contract with Cricket Australia the following month.
| Individual sports | |
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| Team sports | |
