Perry sets sights on global domination

Ellyse Perry, the newly crowned player of the year for women's cricket in Australia, has confirmed her keenness and availability for the inaugural season of the T20 Women's Super League to be staged in England later this year.

Perry, who was last night honoured with the Belinda Clark Award as the top women's international player of the year at the annual Allan Border Medal presentation, said today she will be throwing her name into the ring to be part of the England and Wales Cricket Board's new initiative.

Following on the success and profile achieved by the Rebel Women's Big Bash League in Australia in its maiden summer, the ECB has announced it will host a six-team T20 league with a view to expanding it to also include a 50-over competition in years to come.

WATCH: 'Sky is the limit for women's cricket' says Perry

While details of the team identities and distribution of players among the franchises are yet to be finalised, the six hosts have been confirmed as Hampshire (including Sussex), Lancashire, Surrey, Yorkshire, Loughborough University (home to England's academy program) and a South-West team.

The last-named will incorporate the Somerset and Gloucestershire county set-ups as well as the University of Exeter.

Perry, 25, had previously indicated her interest in spending the coming winter in the UK as her husband Matt Toomua has signed a three-year deal to play for Midlands rugby club the Leicester Tigers (based barely 10 miles from Loughborough) at the completion of the impending Super Rugby season.

But the dual international, who has also represented Australia at soccer, identified the growth of competitions similar to the WBBL in rival nations as another important evolutionary step for women's cricket worldwide and signalled her willingness to be part of that expansion.

"I don't know, it's up to the clubs over there and the ECB, I think they are allocating players," Perry said today when asked if she planned to be part of the Women's Super League in England.

"But I would certainly nominate for it and be available.

WATCH: Ellyse Perry wins 2016 Belinda Clark Award

"For all intents and purposes Cricket Australia and the ECB have really led the development of women's cricket and now other Boards around the world are starting to see how much is there and how much scope there is for improvement and development, which is wonderful."

Perry described the past 12 months, in which she played an integral role in the Commonwealth Bank Southern Stars' Ashes triumph in the UK and the launch of the WBBL which was won by the Sydney Thunder last weekend, as a "watershed year" for the women's game.

The allrounder said the popularity and the quality of the first WBBL season had provided a template on which other nations could found and develop their own programs in a bid to emulate the success achieved by the Southern Stars.

WATCH: Perry's crucial six Ashes Test wickets

Who currently occupy the unprecedented status that is unashamedly coveted by Australia's men's team – ranked number one team in the world across all three formats of the game (Tests, ODI and T20).

"It's a combination of things – more leagues popping up around the world would be a wonderful step and I know that's happening in England in the middle of this year," Perry said when asked about the next step the women's game needed to take.

"I think it (the WBBL) has set the benchmark around the world for professional women's leagues and I think the success we had in the Ashes before that set a platform that we were able to build on when we came home.

WATCH: Perry's consistency is a mainstay of the Southern Stars' success

"It's so lovely to see so many quality games of cricket followed by so many people, and hopefully we see more and more young girls playing the game as well.

"We've got the T20 World Cup coming up (in India) in a couple of months' time and we would really like to retain that, and just trying to grow the competition back home so that when the WBBL starts again next year it will be bigger and better.

"Hopefully there's more top level players coming out from around the world and hopefully more matches on TV and more games for people to follow."