WONDER WOMAN Ellyse Perry is
a sporting legend
Ask anyone to name an Australian women’s cricketer and there’s a fair chance they’ll say Ellyse Perry. The glamorous Sydneyborn Perry is a bona fide superhero of the game with a list of sporting achievements that really does put her in a league of her own.
Consider this: at just 16, Perry debuted for both the national women’s cricket team and soccer team – the youngest person to do so. She is the only Australian to have competed in both cricket and soccer world cups. Yet Perry remains level-headed and seems to swat away questions about her fame as easily as she would a cricket ball aimed at her body. “It’s not something I think about,” she says of her media profile. “For all of us, we just love playing cricket and we feel lucky to do so.
“The fact that people are interested and want to watch sport is brilliant.”
In 2015, Perry married Aussie rugby player Matt Toomua. Given their career choices – and playing schedules – finding time together can be tricky, she concedes. But their sporting careers won’t last forever.
“There is a very small window of time you have to play elite sport, particularly at an international level,” she says. “Hopefully, we can catch up with things later down the track. It’s easy to be supportive of one another when you’re both passionate about what you’re doing.”
On Saturday, Sept. 29, all eyes will be on Perry – and her Aussie teammates – when they take on old foes New Zealand at North Sydney Oval, in the first of three T20 matches, at 7pm.
Women’s cricket has never been bigger. And Channel Seven has shown its faith in the game by scheduling the match after the AFL Grand Final, one of the most-watched events of the year. Perry couldn’t be happier. “The stars have aligned and hopefully it will be a great series for us,” she says.
Perry grew up in Wahroonga, on Sydney’s north shore. Her mother, Kathy, is a doctor and her father, Mark, is a teacher who is also her cricket coach. “It’s been wonderful to share my experiences and opportunities with my family,” she says. “It was never a pushy parent situation with them.”
Her relationship with her father is “very special”, she gushes. “I’m working with Dad on my cricket, but at the same time, he’s just my dad, and I think his love is unconditional.”