Shelley Nitschke: 'It's a good time to be involved in cricket'
When news of the ball tampering scandal broke in March, the Australian women’s cricket team were in India completing a breakthrough T20 tri-series win against England. Led by the indefatigable Meg Lanning with the bat and a miserly Megan Schutt with the ball, Australia posted the highest total in a women’s T20 international on the way to their first piece of T20 silverware since August 2015.
Asked about the timing of the feat a couple of weeks ago, Ellyse Perry responded cheekily that the
ball-tampering saga may yet prove a “positive” for women’s cricket in terms of promoting the sport. Asked if she agrees with Perry’s optimism, new Australian women’s assistant coach Shelley Nitschke laughs.
“I don’t know if it makes for a good or bad time to promote our game,” she tells Guardian Australia. “While that was going on we were in India winning a pretty important series, but I’m not sure if many heard about it. We’ll just keep doing what we’re doing and hopefully creating headlines.”
The Indian tour was one of Nitschke’s first assignments with the team, but prior to her official appointment in May. As a player, Nitschke had a formidable international record: as a spinning allrounder, she took 153 wickets from 122 matches, won ICC women’s cricketer of the year in 2010 and was a four-time recipient of the Belinda Clark award for Australian women’s cricketer of the year.
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Coaching, she says, wasn’t always on her radar, but after stepping away from the game, she realised how much she missed being part of the Australian team. “I was pretty keen to have some time away [when I retired],” she says. “But when I did come back, I probably realised how much I liked being around that team environment. Coaching is a way to stay involved at that level.”
Nitschke began her coaching trajectory with a development role in South Australian cricket, before going on to work with Adelaide’s BBL and WBBL franchises. That there was a role available she could put her hand up for, she says, is indicative of a significant shift in pathways available to women post-retirement in cricket. With Nitschke’s appointment, Cricket Australia now employs six women in full-time coaching roles, while five are part-time assistants or national selectors.
“There are a lot of opportunities now for women to go into coaching and selecting, and as the game grows that encourages more past players to get involved,” she says. “The opportunities are there and there are a lot more entry points now too – you don’t have to go straight to coaching a team, you can do some assisting with underage teams and really build a pathway to work into.
“I think Cricket Australia are really good at providing those opportunities and encouraging women to get involved in that space, so it’s a good time to be involved in both coaching and playing.”
Currently, Nitschke is in England with the Aboriginal XI women’s team, who are on tour to commemorate 150 years since the first team of Aboriginal men were sent over to England to play cricket in a gruelling exercise in colonialism. On their travels, the women’s and men’s teams will visit a memorial for one of the players named Bripumyarrumin, who died from tuberculosis while on the trip.
Nitschke said the experience had been a humbling one for her. “It’s amazing some of the conditions the players went through [in 1868],” she said. “The tour is a bit of a recognition of those who have gone before us, particularly that first men’s team.
“I went to India with the Aboriginal XI in 2016. Obviously I’ve been around national teams, and everyone’s proud to represent their country, as these girls are, but there’s that added element of representing their culture and people, and it’s really nice to see and be part of that, to see how much it means to them.”
One outcome of the tour, Nitschke hopes, will be continued improvement in the pathways available to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and girls interested in cricket. This is something Cricket Australia has been committed to in recent years, with the inauguration of the National Indigenous Cricket Championships as just one example.
“From the team who went to India to the team now in England, there are new faces and younger ones – a few of which are in state programs already,” says Nitschke. “We’ve [also] got Ashleigh Gardner here who is a really good role model, so hopefully participation will grow over time. The men’s program has been going a bit longer, so hopefully [the women’s program] will keep growing as it has.”
Although it is a way off, Nitschke says the team has an eye on the 2020 world T20 tournament to be held in Australia. Cricket Australia has already announced that the women’s final will be held at the MCG on international women’s day, while their aim is for the crowd to break the all-time attendance record for a women’s sport match. The MCG can hold 100,024; the 1999 Fifa World Cup final drew 90,185 fans.
Nitschke says she appreciates the initiative shown by Cricket Australia, and that the “time is right” to back the women’s game to draw its own crowd.
“It’s brave in a way [to set that target] and that’s good to see they obviously think we have a really good product that can stand alone,” she says. “We’re starting to get some really good following for our game. If we could get a big crowd at the MCG it would be another turning point for us and a sign our product has the following we think it does.
“If we can stand alone and still get good coverage, media and supporters, it’s another step forward. It’s a big challenge but I think it’s the way we have to go.”