Women's Cricket
As you saw there the Aussie men's cricket team has done some amazing things during the world cup with both bat and ball. But did you know the art of over-arm bowling might actually have been pioneered by women? If the legend is true, it's just one of the many amazing contributions girls have made to the sport over its long history. Here's Eloise with more.
Cricket is mostly just a boys sport right? Wrong. In the last year, the number of girls playing cricket across Australia has increased by 39%. In fact, one in five cricketers are now girls - like this sporty bunch. These girls are training with the Kensington Cricket Club, and they love the sport.
CRICKETER 1: The numbers are increasing, there's plenty of girls coming out to training now and I'm meeting new girls almost every week coming out to training, so the numbers are getting bigger and its definitely getting more noticed.
CRICKETER 2: I really like the mateship and I like that it's a bit of a different game, you can spend a lot of time together, as well as play and be athletic.
CRICKETER 3: My favourite thing about playing cricket is I like to hit the ball in different positions and get lots of fours, and it keeps me fit.
But whilst this might seem like a new thing, girls have been involved with cricket much longer than you probably realise. Let's take ourselves back to England in the 1800's.
Cricket back then was quite different indeed, especially when it came to bowling. Back then men and boys didn't bowl over arm like they do today, they bowled underarm. But some people say that women might have been the ones to change that.
The story goes that ladies found they simply couldn't bowl this way due to the width of their skirts. So they began to bowl like this over-arm.
BOY: Hm, not bad, not bad at all.
But the influence of girls on this supposed 'boys' sport didn't stop there. It wasn't Bradman, but Betty who was the first Australian cricketer to score a Test Century. And it wasn't Michael Clarke, but Belinda Clark, who first scored 200 runs in a one-day international event. And the first World Cup, yep the women got there first too in England in 1973.
But despite all of these achievements, these days it's still usually men in the cricketing spotlight. That's not to say female cricketers aren't starting to shine though. The Australian Southern Stars women's team is shimmering on the world stage. Last year they won the T20 World Cup in Bangladesh, and in 2013 they took World Cup victory in India.
And the future's looking pretty bright too, each year more and more girls across Australia are heading in to bat.
CRICKETER 4: My dreams are to play for Women's Cricket team for Australia.
CRICKETER 3: Girls rock!
So if you love cricket why not grab a bat and a ball and hit the pitch, and follow in the footsteps of all Australia's great cricketers.
- Eloise Fuss | Reporter
- Women's cricket in Australia: Southern Stars | weblink
- Howzat: Showcasing 140 years of female cricketing history in Australia: ABC News | weblink
- Eight teams announced for Women's BBL: Cricket Australia | weblink
- Australia | Map
- Read/Submit Comments