Australian women cricketers hailed as among greatest ever
Australia’s all-conquering cricketers were hailed on Monday as one of the greatest sports teams the country has ever produced after winning another Twenty20 World Cup.
Meg Lanning’s side beat hosts South Africa by 19 runs at Newlands in Cape Town on Sunday and lifted the trophy for the sixth time in the last seven tournaments.
“Don Bradman had the invincibles. Meg Lanning had the immortals,” the Australian newspaper said.
“Where Bradman’s legendary post-war team was only credited for a tour of England, the Australian women’s team is now in an era of unprecedented world domination.”
Australia were reigning 50-over world champions and last year won their first Commonwealth Games gold medal.
“This is a spectacular achievement that has been grossly underestimated in recent weeks,” added the broadsheet.
“It is a disgrace that this Australian team has not been nominated for the Laureus World Sports Awards and makes a mockery of the once prestigious accolades.”
The England women’s soccer team has been nominated for this year’s Laureus team awards, along with five others including France’s men’s rugby team and Formula 1’s Red Bull. But Lanning’s world champions have been overlooked.
The Sydney Morning Herald praised her as one of the greats.
“They played in a way that forever changed the status and perception of women’s cricket and made some of them household names,” it said.
“It’s almost impossible to deny that when you factor in everything that matters — achievement, grace, inspiration for a generation, and social impact — they’ve put more on the floor than anyone else.”
Lanning has now led the team to five ICC tournament titles, with Sunday’s triumph adding to her previous wins as skipper in 2014, 2018 and 2020 and the 2022 one-day World Cup win in New Zealand.
Overall, she was part of seven world champion teams.
Opener Beth Mooney, whose 74 unbeaten run set the stage for victory over South Africa, said Lanning should be considered one of the best leaders in world sport.
“When Meg retires – hopefully not for a few more years – I think she will go down as one of the greatest leaders not only in cricket but in sport and in general,” she told reporters.
“I think she has immense cricket brains. She’s cool, calm and collected under pressure, and she has empathy too.”
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