Refusing to be stumped
Women’s cricket in the NT has s been on the back foot for years, rs, but a movement is gaining traction ction as determined, dedicated players ers hold their own. What does the e future hold?
There’s no doubt women’s sport in Australia is enjoying a golden period. The AFL women’s league kicked off with a huge amount of interest.
Women’s participation in rugby union has never been higher — who could forget the Australian women’s magnificent gold medal effort at Rio?
Then there is the Women’s Big Bash League. Cricket Australia ran with the bold concept in 2015, aligning women’s teams with the men’s, giving them the same names, uniforms and branding.
Channel Ten broadcast 10 games — three on its main channel, seven on its subsidiary channel, One. It was the first time in Australia any domestic women’s matches had been broadcast.
It was a huge gamble. And it worked. Ratings for the televised games hugely outperformed expectations — exceeding 250,000 viewers on one occasion and beating ALeague ratings.
Players such as Ellyse Perry and Alyssa Healy are now household names.
But, most important, girls across Australia were exposed to the women’s game. As a result, female participation nationwide increased by 9 per cent in the 2015-16 season.
Every state and territory recorded an increase, but at the bottom of the pile, with the fewest players and just a 2.54 per cent increase, was the Territory. IT’S a Monday evening at the NT Cricket nets in Marrara. A wet season downpour has just eased, bringing some relief to the heat, but the mugginess remains.
It doesn’t deter the young cricketers at the NT Female Academy. About half a dozen girls aged between 12 and 15 laugh and chatter in one net, bowling balls with varying degrees of accuracy to a gangly teenager kitted out in gear slightly too big for her.
Two nets down, there is a quiet focus.
A left-arm bowler sends down a short-pitched outswinger at a cracking pace, and the batswoman smacks the ball with an admirable cut shot. That’d be four.
The bowler slumps her shoulders and turns around to head back to her mark.
“I can’t get her out,” she sulks.
I laugh, because her opponent is Julie Page (nee
Woerner), a retired first-class cricketer who spent a decade playing for the South Australian Scorpions and represented Australia in underage sides on several occasions.
The bowler is 14-year-old Amber Cloughessy, who took up cricket just 18 months ago.
The Palmerston teenager and Page, 32, represent opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to women’s cricket in the NT.
Cloughessy’s raw talent began in the backyard. With the encouragement of a mate, she began playing for Palmerston Cricket Club last year. She has since been earmarked for talent development, attending camps and playing for NT Strike and the SA under-15s in national competitions last month.
She’s also spent time with Shelley Nitschke — a former Katherine resident and hugely successful cricketer who has played for SA, the Adelaide Strikers and Australia, and is heavily involved in coaching the next generation of stars.
Page has a long, decorated history in cricket and, although she retired from first-class cricket in 2011, she remains involved in the game. She was the Darwin and Districts Cricket Competition chairwoman for three years, is on the NT Cricket board and coaches junior cricket at Waratah Cricket Club.
Page’s journey to the top has been a pioneering one of sorts, but a familiar one for female cricketers. She started playing because her two older brothers did, and was the only girl on the local cricket scene for years.
“But it wasn’t a problem, most of my friends were male,” she says. “It became a little tough when their strength began to really increase, but this was to the benefit of my cricket.”
Page played her first representative cricket as a member of the NT primary schools team — two years in a row — and was the first and only girl competing at the national championships.
Following her junior cricket with Waratah (captaining under-15 and under-17 sides) she played in every grade, from E through to A, and was the first woman to do so.
Alongside playing for the Australian under-23 side in Sri Lanka, Page lists playing an Egrade match with her dad and two brothers as a career highlight.
Interstate travel for training and games was not easy, and Page is grateful to cricket charity The Lord’s Taverners NT for their financial support, and her employer — Top End Health Service, where she is a biomedical engineer — for their flexibility.
Eighteen-year-old Tabatha Saville has a similar story — she grew up playing cricket with the boys in Alice Springs, playing A grade for Federal.
She played for NT Strike and SA under 18s last year, and won a contract with the Adelaide Strikers in WBBL02.
Queenslander Megan White gave away her first-class cricket career when she moved to Darwin in 2009 to be a croc handler, playing for Waratah in a short-lived women’s competition for a few seasons. After moving back to Brisbane, she was picked to play for the Brisbane Heat in WBBL01.
These are the women succeeding against the odds. NO regular women’s competition. The tyranny of distance. A transient population. Competing with other sports. A season out of synch with the rest of Australia.
These are some of the reasons given for why women’s cricket has struggled in Darwin. Alice Springs is a step ahead, with a modified-format women’s competition during the summer. But challenges remain and the truth is that, without a first-class cricket side, the Territory’s cricketers need to go elsewhere to play at the highest level.
With that reality, NT Cricket pathways manager Mark Sorell’s aim is for the NT to “become known as the best developer and exporter of talent in Australia”. But Sorell is mindful that, for up-and-coming players, if there are no regular opportunities for them to play cricket, they’ll look elsewhere.
“They’ll see an opportunity ... and cricket loses,” he says. “Especially in Darwin — there are plenty of sports happening in the dry and we’re just one of them.”
For the past two years, the NT has sent a women’s team to the Australian Country Championships. But for just a handful of games once a year, it’s not enough.
The National Indigenous Cricket Competition and Imparja Cup, currently being held in Alice Springs, both have women’s divisions, which are another opportunity for Territorian players. But, again, they are one-off events each year.
“One of the things across the board — male and female — is that we just don’t play enough cricket, and we don’t play enough cricket at rep levels or higher levels,” Sorell says. “That’s where we fall behind.” Page, Cloughessy and I are picked for the NT Strike women’s side to play in the Australian Country Championships in January. The rest of the side are from Alice Springs — a testament to the value of their regular eight-a- side competition in the summer.
It’s the first time the side has been a purely Territorian one — last year South Australian ring-ins made up the numbers.
At 33 I’m one of the older members of the squad. I’m picked on the basis of my solid performance in the nets at the academy, as work commitments prevent me from playing in the men’s club competition — the only avenue for women in Darwin wanting to play regularly.
I once had aspirations to play higher-level cricket, but growing up and working in regional areas, with limited opportunities to play, made it difficult to sustain the dream, especially as a female in a maledominated sport.
So I’m excited for the opportunity to pull on the black and ochre for the NT, and it means a lot to receive cap number 16.
I have grand visions of making centuries and taking wicket hauls. My illusions are shattered on day one, with several misfields, inconsistent bowling and bad leg cramping.
I’m not the only one — the whole team suffers some degree of first-day nerves.
But Page is brilliant. She hits NSW Country all over the park on her way to 66. Her batting efforts earn her an honorary baggy green when she is named in the Australian Country XI at the end of the tournament.
She’s also a key presence in the field, helping captain Bronte Stray and always having an encouraging word for anyone feeling the heat.
Our confidence increases as the competition progresses, and the younger players come into their own. Cloughessy gets a couple of wickets, as does fellow teenager Monet Hunter.
Rachel Hartung, 15, bowls consistently well — and takes a screamer of a catch against eventual finalists Victoria.
We manage to get a win on the board against Western Australia on day three, and it’s a great boost for morale.
I still haven’t scored a century or bagged a five-for, but by this time my whole mindset has changed. It’s not about winning or personal glory.
It’s about building a foundation for women’s cricket in the Territory. I think about all the women and girls who will come after us. The future Julie Pages and Tabatha Savilles who will pull on these colours in years to come.
It’s about nurturing talent and passion for the game among a generation of girls for whom there has never been a better time to be playing cricket.
We are building an innings.
NT Cricket’s Female Academy resumes in March. Watch the NT Cricket Facebook page for updates.