The Australian women’s cricket team have been serial winners in white-ball global tournaments for a number of years. (AP)The Australian women’s cricket team has inarguably been one of the most dominant forces in the game, winning numerous global tournaments around the world. For a long time, the team was referred to as the “Southern Stars”. However, in 2017, Cricket Australia decided to do away with that nickname, opting instead to refer to them as the Australian women’s cricket team, moving forward.
The reason cited for dropping the nickname was to promote gender equality and to look at cricket as a game for all.
“We are not dropping the ‘Southern Stars’, a wonderful brand that our cricketers have created and which will remain as an alternative name for the team, but the new naming convention demonstrates that Cricket Australia is looking at all the ways in which it operates to ensure we can meet the ambition of being a sport for all.”
“This move may appear symbolic, but it does carry considerable weight. Cricket cannot hope to be a sport for all Australians if it does not recognise the power of words, and the respect for women that sits behind such decisions,” David Peever, the then Cricket Australia Chairman, had said.
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The Australian women’s cricket team have been serial winners in white-ball global tournaments for a number of years. They have won seven out of the 12 ODI World Cups played, including three consecutive wins in 1978, 1982 and 1988.
They have also won the most T20 World Cups, with six titles to their name. They won a hat trick of titles twice, first between 2010 and 2014 and later between 2018 and 2023. They finished runners-up to the West Indies in 2016, losing the final by eight wickets at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
A key architect of Australia’s success in the 2010s was Meg Lanning. The top-order batter was part of the side that won the ODI World Cup in 2013 and nine years later, led the side to victory in New Zealand.
She is also a five-time T20 World Cup champion, leading Australia to four of those wins in 2014, 2018, 2020, and 2023. Lanning retired from all forms of international cricket in November 2023, and wicketkeeper-batter Alyssa Healy took over as the new Australian women’s team captain.
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