How the all-conquering women taught the Aussie men a lesson
Female role models were crucial when it came to changing team culture, writes Isabelle Westbury
‘This isn’t equality. This is charity,” was one of a number of similar comments which greeted the news that Australia women’s cricket team would receive the same prize money at next year’s World Twenty20 as the men’s team might expect.
“This makes no economic or commercial sense, it’s simply political. Very sad,” continued the comment. Whenever women’s sport makes the news there is a small but persistent commentary that accompanies it; that women’s sport is propped up by men’s, subsidised by male generosity, charity even. Only this is not the case in Australian cricket. From where the sport was 18 months ago to where it is now, Australia’s women have not so much been a part of the men’s transformation story from cheating losers to Ashes contenders, but integral to it.
In the immediate aftermath of the ball-tampering incident in March last year, the ensuing culture review went out of its way to state that women’s cricket in the country remained “unaffected” by the incident’s tainting of cricket’s reputation. Instead, referencing an attitude in the men’s game towards the spirit of cricket as a “‘nice to have’ not ‘need to have’,” the review said that the “women’s team get it – and are great ambassadors for the spirit of cricket”.
This all sounds lovely, but it also reflected a stereotype of women’s sport as a cuddly, less competitive version of the men’s. Indeed, when
the newly-appointed captain Tim Paine started introducing handshakes with the opposing team as a pre-match ritual, many past Australian male cricketers voiced their displeasure, perceiving it as a soft departure from the hard-edged ruthlessness that had brought them so much success in the past.
Cricket Australia, however, persevered. After all, its women’s team were finding success on the pitch while still managing to be pleasant human beings. Here were role models that those in the men’s team, at the time, could hardly be called.
“We had a benchmark – both in terms of on-field performance and playing in a manner that’s consistent with the spirit of cricket,” Cricket Australia’s chief executive, Kevin Roberts, told The Daily Telegraph. “We ended up looking really closely at what the Australian women’s team represent.”
These sentiments were soon underlined by action. The Australian women’s vice-captain, Rachael Haynes, was co-opted on to a player-led review alongside a number of men’s cricketers. And then there was the leadership programme. Thirty senior cricketers, coaches and administrators within Cricket Australia were sent on the Harvard-style course. Roughly equal numbers of women and men participated, including Haynes, and the women’s captain, Meg Lanning. Involving women, in all aspects of cricket, from coaching, to administration, to encouraging more and more to play, it has been seen as integral to changing the way Australia’s men have gone about their cricket. It has, almost inadvertently, also proven very helpful to the women’s team.
In the 2017 women’s World Cup, Australia were knocked out by India in the semi-finals at a time when the women’s team were reaching their own, albeit less disastrous, breaking point. A clique had formed, dividing some of the higher, more intimidating personalities within the team – the likes of Lanning, Ellyse Perry and Alyssa Healy – and, well, the rest.
A chance to pause, reflect and approach some of Lanning and co’s failings in an honest and constructive manner led to a more inclusive approach. Newcomers have felt welcome and the team have played more as a team, less reliant on a few individuals – much to England’s disadvantage.
On the eve of the greatest challenge of Paine’s career, it is to role models and behaviour, the values upheld by Australia’s women, that Australia’s men’s captain is turning to.
This is no small coincidence. Whether it is immediately beneficial, we will see, but for Australian cricket’s wider future, the inclusion of women, on and off the pitch, is now seen as imperative. Let us hope it catches on.