Healy, Jones question lack of spotlight for Australian women’s cricket
New Delhi: Former Australia captain Alyssa Healy and former international Mel Jones have voiced concerns over the lack of visibility and scheduling space for the country’s women’s cricket team, despite its continued success on the global stage.
Australia’s third ODI against New Zealand at North Sydney Oval last Thursday clashed with the final day of the men’s Test against South Africa in Gqeberha. Rain in Sydney subsequently restricted the women’s match to just 16 balls, bringing an already frustrating evening to an abrupt end.
“They’re playing at North Sydney Oval at 7:15pm … the Test begins at 7pm. I mean, we’re even clashing against our own side that’s playing overseas. It’s disappointing. I think the fact that our girls are playing as well as they are and aren’t quite getting the spotlight here in our own country is really frustrating,” Healy told foxsports.com.au.
Jones echoed the sentiment, questioning why Australia’s women’s team was not receiving the platform its performances deserved.
“I completely agree with Midge (Healy), which might be the first time we’ve actually agreed on something,” Jones laughed.
“We know that we have probably the best sporting team in the world on our doorstep, and we’re not allowing that tag and their elite performances and amazing stories and capabilities and athleticism to be showcased. When you’ve got something like this, you want to show it off and you want to put it on the pedestal it deserves. And having a summer like this in which it has been really difficult for fans to come out and support this team is hugely disappointing,” she opined.
The scheduling concerns extend beyond the abandoned match. Australia’s women will go more than four months without an international on home soil, with their October ODI and T20I series against Bangladesh and New Zealand, respectively, confined to Brisbane and Sydney.
“Even a minor detail – you’re having the three ODIs in Brisbane and the three T20s in Sydney – there’s not even an opportunity for the whole of Australia to see a team that’s just come off a World Cup win. And that to me is really disappointing,” Healy added.
The calendar has been complicated by the Women’s Premier League (WPL), the Women’s Big Bash League (WBBL) and the International Cricket Council’s decision to move the inaugural Women’s Champions Trophy to February 2027. However, Jones believes scheduling pressures should not come at the expense of the national team.
“You look at scheduling, and it’s the most difficult job in cricket at the moment, I think, because we are inundated with overlapping fixtures. We all understand that and we all understand it’s a tough ask to try and allow everyone to have their space. But you’re starting from the top down, aren’t you?
“You’ve got your two premier sides, the men’s teams and the women’s teams. There needs to be a more concerted effort to ensure that situations like this don’t occur. And that’s not just Cricket Australia. There were probably other circumstances around it that played into it, but when you just look at it as a punter and a fan of the game, you just go, well, that’s really disappointing. It’s a little bit of a lack of respect of the number one team in the world and not giving them space to shine,” she said.
The fact that the men’s Test schedule was finalised relatively late also drew criticism from Jones.
“I would have thought that it’s probably more a case of, it’s going to be harder to shift it than not. But then you go back to South Africa and you say, well, you’re late on your scheduling! I’d love to know the kind of pushback on the men’s side of things once the women’s were locked in,” she said.
Cricket Australia chief Todd Greenberg has since pledged to explore alternatives and get “creative” with future scheduling. With the ICC’s Future Tours Programme leaving limited opportunities for home internationals during the peak summer period, proposed solutions include staging women’s T20Is after men’s Tests or aligning the WBBL with the men’s tournament.
Healy believes adjustments remain possible despite the schedule being largely set.
“I know the schedule seems to be locked in for the next three years, but I think there’s ways that we can adjust it to make sure that we’re maximising exposure to those girls,” she said.
