A world-class player and a ‘game-changing moment’ for women’s cricket

For a woman who first played for her country in an era when players had to pay for their England blazer and training kit, Charlotte Edwards knows a thing or two about game-changing moments.

Particularly given that this year will see 41 professional female cricketers on full-time domestic and international duty.

It is, though, the signing of an Australian, in the form of Ellyse Perry for The Hundred that Edwards believes could completely transform the sport in this country.

Perry is widely regarded as sporting royalty Down Under, and Edwards is confident that a liberal sprinkling of her stardust for the Birmingham Pheonix this summer will see women’s cricket take flight in a way that would previously have been unimaginable. 

“This week we’ve seen Sarah (Taylor) being given the chance to work with Sussex and now one of the greatest to play our game is coming to play in the Hundred,” says Edwards, the former England captain and now head coach of the Southern Brave.

“It shows how The Hundred is attracting the best players – everyone wants the best players in the comp and Elysse Perry is, without doubt, the best player in the world right now.

“Elysse Perry, playing both football and cricket for her country, she’s probably one of the most famous sportspeople in Australia, male or female. 

“She’s a great girl to go with it, very humble, very modest. I’ve been very lucky to play against her since she made her Test debut at the age of 17 and I’ve watched her grow as a player and a person.

“Her and Meg are superstars and the Hundred really needs those types of players in it. We’ve managed to attract some of the best male players and now we’ve got the very best women in the world coming over here.

“We talk a lot about game-changing moments in women’s sport but I really believe this is one.” 

Perry’s record speaks for itself. 

A Test average of 78 with the bat and just 18 with the ball is a testament to her ability with the red ball.

Her performances in ODI and T20 cricket for both Australia and the Sydney Sixers in the Big Bash also single her out as the outstanding cricketer of her generation. And maybe any other generation too.

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“I’ve gone on record as saying that she will be the greatest of all time,” says Edwards. “As a bowler her stats are outstanding and her stats with the bat are too. Put that together with her athleticism, her fielding and her competitive nature and you’ve got the complete package.

“She has an enormous will to win but, more importantly, she’s the perfect role model for young girls.

“Anyone that has spent a lot of time around Elysse Perry will know just how hard she works and we really couldn’t ask for a better role model in the women’s game.”

In 2011, Perry became the first athlete in history to play in both football and cricket World Cup’s, with the 30-year-old scoring a stunning strike for the Matildas in a 3-1 defeat by Sweden in the quarter-finals of the former. 

It’s her brilliance in both sports that has captured the imagination in Australia, and provided her with the kind of endorsements and contracts that have, by and large, eluded female cricketers in England.

And while scepticism remains in county circles over whether the Hundred is the best vehicle to preserve the domestic game, there’s little argument that the competition offers women’s cricket the chance to be utterly transformed.

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What England really need are some Elysse Perry’s of their own. Although Edwards believes we may already have found one.

“I think Sophie Ecclestone ticks a lot of boxes,” she says. “She’s the number one T20 bowler in the world, she has taken a huge number of wickets and has only just turned 21.

“That girl is going to break every record there is if she continues to play for another ten years.

“She’s an exceptional talent. We’ve always known that she was going to be very good but she has probably exceeded where I thought she was going to be at this point in her career.

“She’s a vital member of that England team but I think over the next three or four I think we’re going to have a number of those players because of the investment thats’ been made by the ECB.” 

Rubbing shoulders with Perry this summer can only help hasten that process.

The days of paying for your own blazer have long gone. Thanks to the groundwork done by the likes of Edwards and Taylor, the modern female cricketer is now cut from a very different cloth.