All-rounder at the heart of Australian dominance

Ellyse Perry

In the first global event of the decade, the 2010 Women’s World Twenty20, Australia had a meagre 106 to defend against New Zealand. Then Ellyse Perry was tossed the ball. She took wickets in her first three overs and then successfully defended 14 off the very last over. What happened was women’s cricket in the 2010s in microcosm: Australia winning, with Perry player of the match.

This decade, Australia have won one of the two Cricket World Cups, four of the five World Twenty20s, and held the Ashes after four of the six Ashes series. Perry has played in all of these, a totem with bat, ball and in the field.

The decade ended with Australia thrashing England in the Ashes.

Perry, once again, was at the heart of it, taking seven for 22 in an ODI at Canterbury to humiliate England. And bowling, you see, is probably her weaker suit: Perry’s past three scores in Ashes Test matches are 213 not out, 116 and 76 not out. For much of the decade, she would have got into any team in the world in all three formats as a batter or bowler. In Tests in the 2010s Perry averages 114.6 and 16.7; in ODIS 66.1 and 23.6; in T20s 30.4 and 19.3. Australia, then, have been playing with 12 women on the pitch. Measured simply by what she can do, Perry is the greatest women’s cricketer of all time.

Professionalism, which Australia introduced in May 2013, has allowed her to explore the outer limits of her talents without compromise, despite football’s attempts to keep her; from rightback, Perry scored a fine chip in the quarter-finals of the 2011 World Cup, one of her 18 international caps.

“To some extent my timing was fortunate,” she told me earlier this year. Perhaps there is just a little sadness in Perry’s brilliance. Despite the booming interest in women’s cricket, a combination of the huge financial inequities between nations – even starker than in the men’s game, with many of Australia’s opponents not yet fully professional – and the irregularity of Test cricket, now effectively an Ashes-only event, means that the range of challenges that Perry is afforded for her effervescent talents is limited. “We don’t play a lot of Test cricket,” she lamented. “Everything’s been few and far between.” Yet any such concerns must be seen within the context of an athlete who has helped to redefine what is possible in her sport. “We’re very fortunate to be in a position where what we’re doing is hopefully a positive news story and has a massive influence on a lot of people,” Perry said. “It helps to change society a bit, which is pretty cool.” For the cricketer of the 2010s, you suspect that the high point may be yet to come: a sold-out Melbourne Cricket Ground on March 8 next year, for the T20 World Cup. Off the field so much is different. But on the field Australia, and Perry, will expect the next decade to begin in much the same way as the last.