Parents' commitment confirms progress

When Australia batter Elyse Villani first got her driver’s licence, she realised she didn’t know how to get to her cricket club – or to Victorian training.

The then-teenager had traversed the routes from her home in Melbourne’s north-eastern suburbs countless times – but had always been ferried to and from her sporting commitments by her parents, Deb and Rod.

And while Deb had hoped the upside of all those hours spent taxiing her talented daughter around Melbourne would equate to more time for the pair to bond, she’d underestimated her teenager’s penchant for a nap.

“You’d think it would give lots of opportunity for conversation, but Elyse used to just sleep the whole time,” Deb laughed.

“She’d sleep going there, she’d sleep going home, to the point where when she finally got her license, she had no idea how to get to any of the grounds and I was worried she might fall asleep at the wheel.”

Image Id: 2110D363452F46FAA42166E26E201EF1 Image Caption: Elyse Villani with her mother Deb // cricket.com.au

The seemingly countless trips to and from matches and training are just one of the sacrifices parents make to support their children’s dreams, and which Australia’s women’s team players admit have helped them get to where they are today.

“It’s hard to put that into words, to be honest,” Elyse Villani said.

“I’m the youngest of four and all of us grew up playing a multiple sports, so you can imagine what it was like weekends and mid-week driving four kids around to their different sports.

“If it wasn’t for mum and dad, plain and simple, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”

For 20-year-old fast bowler Tayla Vlaeminck, who grew up in Bendigo and who made her Australian debut against Pakistan in Malaysia last October, it’s that support she couldn’t have done without.

“I definitely wouldn’t be here without my parents,” Vlaeminck said. “It was a two-hour trip down the Calder Freeway (to Victoria training) and it was 2-3 training sessions a week over the last couple of years.

“I didn’t have my licence, so mum and dad were taking it in turns taking me up and back and they had to sit through and watch me train for three hours as well.

“They’re just a great support to me in general. Dad is a next level (cricket nuffy) now. He didn’t watch it too much before I started but now he thinks he should be coaching Australia, I think.

“He’s a huge supporter and he’s given me thousands of throw downs in the nets the last couple of years and I think his shoulder’s just hanging on, so I can’t thank him enough.”

Those sacrifices don’t end when their daughters reach the highest level, either.

Just being able to watch their children wear the green and gold is difficult; and many parents simply can’t attend matches where their children represent Australia as often as they would like – particularly when the team is playing internationally.

This is even more challenging when Australia tour the most far-flung parts of the world; when the Southern Stars claimed their fourth T20 World Cup title in the Caribbean last November, a crew of just six family and friends were able to attend.

But the parents of that winning squad did have an opportunity to come together and watch their daughters in action during last Sunday’s third and final Commonwealth Bank ODI at Junction Oval last Sunday – fittingly, as the team capped off a golden summer with a series whitewash against New Zealand – with Cricket Australia staging a function to acknowledge the invaluable contribution they’ve made to their daughters’ careers.

“We all know that parents can either make or break sport for kids at any level,” CA chief executive Kevin Roberts said.

“What we see with Australia’s women’s cricket team is not just a great cricket team and not just great ambassadors for our spot but great ambassadors for our country and such credit needs to go to those parents who’ve made this possible.”

The landscape for the women’s game in Australia has changed dramatically in a short period of time, with the country’s international players becoming professional, full-time athletes while domestic players have achieved semi-professional status through the Rebel WBBL and WNCL.

It’s a drastic shift from the period when Elyse debuted for Australia, aged 19, in 2009.

“They’ve turned professional in the last five years and that’s made a huge difference for them, not having to work part-time or find someone who is happy to have them work part-time given their schedule and how it changes all the time,” Deb Villani said.

“It’s been amazing, I still can’t really get my head around describing Elyse as a professional cricketer.

“When you think that 10 years ago we were still giving them petrol money to get to the games, I never imagined (this change) in Elyse’s time.”

Image Id: 6A5B2DCA740A4B9ABB6380D7B3439167 Image Caption: Australia captain Meg Lanning with parents Wayne and Sue // cricket.com.au

This development of the women’s game was one of the achievements highlighted in the Australian Cricket 2019 Press for Progress Report released earlier in the week, alongside the continued growth in girls’ participation and in the number of all-girls teams and the move to a standalone WBBL competition beginning in October 2019.

“Key to our commitment is being transparent and not shying away from our challenges: overcoming the perception that cricket is still ‘not for girls’, continuing to draw women’s elite sport into the public arena, and authentically prioritising workforce diversity across the country,” Roberts said.

"While we’re proud of the progress made, we know and are committed to this and for the first time we share our 2022 national targets that collectively across Australian Cricket we are all working towards."

Those targets include ensuring that women make up a minimum of 40 per cent of Australia’s cricket workforce by 2022, and growing female participation to at least 660,000 people, up from the 504,000 currently playing.