Potential Commonwealth Games gold and a hat-trick of Twenty20 World Cup triumphs will be the lures to keep Australia’s team together for the next 12 months.
Alyssa Healy, Rachael Haynes, Meg Lanning and Ellyse Perry have been the core of a side who have dominated the world for the past five years, culminating in the return of the global 50-over crown in Christchurch on Sunday night.
Meg Lanning and Alyssa Healy celebrate World Cup victory in Christchurch.Credit:Getty Images
Similarly, head coach Matthew Mott has played a key role mentoring the group and forming a close bond with Lanning, in particular.
While Healy joked about impending motherhood in the wake of the Cup final, and Haynes is already a parent with her partner Leah Poulton, there is also a collective resolve to knock off a couple more major tournaments together.
“That’s part of sustained success, turning players over at the right time who have been great servants,” Mott said from Christchurch. “But I don’t see that [happening] any time soon – I think we’re getting enough games into people. We played 14 out of our 15 in this tournament and that was a big part of our success.
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“We’re lucky we’re at the end of the line, but there’s a lot of work that goes on in the system, in club cricket, all the way through to produce these players. They keep coming in droves now, and the only bad part about it is there’s some horrific selection decisions we have to make. We have to leave out really good players who are performing well. But it’s a good problem to have and a real sign of strength in the entire system.
“When players were out of our team, there was no void left, and in many ways we just matched up slightly differently. I do think we’re going to look to step up the Australia A program in the next year or two, so giving more opportunities in international cricket to some really good players who’ve performed domestically will be a big part of that.”
Healy, who played two of the innings of her life in the semi and final to see off the West Indies and England respectively, has made it clear that she wants to remain a part of the team for at least the next 12 months. There is some motivation to be able to play together in times less straitened by COVID-19, and also to take out the Commonwealth Games gold medal in Birmingham that eluded Steve Waugh’s team in Kuala Lumpur in 1998.