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CA take front seat in global women's game

3 minute read

Cricket Australia has seen success at home in the women's game but know they must stop the momentum from dropping globally due to COVID-19.

ICC Women's T20 Cricket World Cup match.
ICC Women's T20 Cricket World Cup match. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Cricket Australia will take it upon themselves to help ensure the worldwide momentum behind the women's game doesn't stop as a result of COVID-19.

CA released their Press for Progress report on Thursday, detailing the continued growth of women's cricket in the country.

The report is headlined by the achievements around Australia's successful T20 World Cup, and the 86,174 that watched the final at the MCG.

But that event also acts as a warning for the women's game.

No top-tier internationals have been played since as a result of the pandemic, while next year's 50-over World Cup has been postponed by a year.

An inaugural under-19s World Cup set for next year is now marked as TBC, while the West Indies recently had to replace South Africa for an upcoming tour of England.

At home, Australia are in good hands. They host New Zealand next month and will likely tour there at the end of the summer.

The WBBL will also go ahead, with CA confident the clash with India's own women's T20 Challenge would only be a one off due to the pandemic.

But regardless, interim CA boss Nick Hockley said there was also a responsibility to see the global game continue its rise.

"I think we've got a massive responsibility," he said.

"The commitment from across the game and across the admin is to not take a backwards step and to capitalise on all the momentum we've seen.

"It's building blocks and let's keep building and not taking a backwards step."

Former Test star and CA board member Mel Jones also admits she has concerns.

She has been in dialogue with the ICC in the past week over the issue and has also held open dialogue with nations such as India over growth strategies for the sport.

Thursday's report shows there were 1662 new girls teams last summer and 76,000 registered female players, as well as a 32 per cent representation on boards.

"There is a massive concern (globally over a loss of momentum), without a doubt," Jones said.

"I have had a couple of chats with the ICC over the past week about that.

"It's not to say people don't have it at the front of mind.

"It's an issue across global sport at the moment.

"But I think we have enough brains at the table to make sure that we can at least take advantage of as many opportunities as we can in the next 12 months."

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