Don’t reduce women’s matches to cut costs in wake of coronavirus: Alyssa Healy to Cricket Australia

Star wicketkeeper batter Alyssa Healy thinks that cash-strapped Cricket Australia must not sacrifice the number of matches for women to cut costs when they restructure the domestic schedule.

A shortened season is being speculated with CA struggling to stay afloat in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, and is facing losses worth millions of dollars.

The women matches in the domestic competition Marsh Sheffield Shield and the Women Big Bash League are not lucrative compared to the men’s cricket, but hosting them still burns a hole in Cricket Australia’s pocket. However, Healy says cutting the games for women would not be prudent.

“[Playing less games] obviously doesn’t sit great. We don’t want to lose out on any cricket. It’d be a real shame,” Healy, who is a director of the Australian Cricketers Association, told The Unplayable Podcast.

“Especially the WBBL: It’s such a great tournament for us and the bulk of the cricket we get to play. We don’t get to play much 50-over cricket in our domestic competition and that’s something that us as a playing group have been really pushing for in the last few years, that the WNCL competition is looked after.”

Healy also said that with women 50-over World Cup scheduled in February, losing games could affect players’ performance. “We don’t want to lose any cricket. I don’t feel our domestic players get to play enough as it is. We’ll have to wait and see what sort of decisions are made. I know that it’s not set in stone and there’s some scheduling meetings coming up that the players are going to be involved in and will hopefully get to have their say on what the summer might look like.”

Healy said investment in women cricket must not be stopped.

“It’s such a shame that this [pandemic] has happened and we’ve potentially lost a bit of momentum, but I think we can pick that up pretty quickly once we get back rolling and [by] making sure we invest properly in the women’s game and make sure it thrives in the future.

“People love watching the WBBL and we want to make sure that product keeps going from strength to strength,” she added.