Star Australian all-rounder Ellyse Perry has defended the scheduling of Sunday’s first T20 against the West Indies despite a scheduling clash which will see Australia’s game go head-to-head with the NRL and NRLW grand finals.
As the Australians look to build on the momentum created by the Matildas stellar World Cup run, Sunday’s game at North Sydney Oval starts at 12.20pm local time, with the NRLW grand final in Sydney set to kick-off at 3.55pm, which won’t give fans enough time to get to both games.
It’s not an ideal scenario for the first international T20 of the summer but one Perry, a former Matildas herself, said was hard to avoid given the increasing volume of cricket being played in Australia at both international and domestic level, including the WBBL.
“The summer scheduling and how much cricket we need to fit in, you can’t always get things 100 per cent in a clear window,” Perry said on the eve of another blockbuster summer of women’s cricket.
“Given the time of the match being quite early in the day at a wonderful venue, I still think there’s plenty of value in this fixture and I think we’ll get a good crowd to come along.”
The T20 series is followed by three ODIs against the West Indies, with Perry hoping for huge crowds and big television audiences to support women’s cricket on the back of an incredibly successful FIFA World Cup where the Matildas smashed TV ratings and captured the nation’s attention.
The women’s cricket team is already popular given their incredible success on the international stage, which is why Perry is calling for games to be moved to bigger venues down the track.
North Sydney Oval has produced magical scenes for both the national side and in the WBBL, but Cricket Australia is hoping for crowds to grow, with a stand-alone Melbourne derby at the MCG on November 25 and a Sydney derby the following day at the SCG.
“That’s a really interesting conversation and one that’s going to continue evolving going forward,” Perry said when asked about stadium options.
“From my position, I think North Sydney Oval still plays a significant part in women’s cricket with where it currently sits.
“But at the same time, if we look at some of the future scheduling for this summer, the opportunity to start developing big stadium matches and attracting big crowds to important fixtures is a key component going forward for women’s cricket.
“The final round of Big Bash with fixtures being at the MCG, Adelaide Oval and the SCG on that last weekend is a really great starting point for us in terms of setting a goal and challenge of attracting big crowds to those venues.
“Hopefully, as time progresses that’s going to become the norm and we might outgrow this place, as lovely as North Sydney is.”
The upcoming series will be a good test for Australia after they retained the Ashes but were pushed all the way by an England side that finished strongly.
Meg Lanning didn’t travel to the UK for the Ashes but she did make a strong return in the WNCL with a half-century for Victoria that Perry says is an encouraging sign for the veteran skipper ahead of a possible return to the national side.
Perry also wants to be bowling by then after a knee injury forced her out of The Hundred tournament.
“In terms of my full fitness, bowling will probably be something I still work through across this series and it might mean I’m not available to bowl until late in the piece or perhaps towards the start of the WBBL,” she explained.
“It’s just been really nice to be able to get back on the park and to feature in matches and play cricket again.
“It’s like nothing’s wrong, but it’s about building loads up again so that I’m fully prepared for the summer ahead.”
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