Ellyse Perry
Ellyse Perry's been voted greatest women's cricketer of the 21st century? She's probably the greatest of all time!
I remember that big six she hit at the MCG on T20I debut, against England - big stadium, probably one of the few televised games back then - and she was only 16 years old. You just knew that there was a superstar in the making. She scored 29 not out off 25 from No. 7, took 4 for 20, and was named player of the match.
You look at a 16-year-old and you think their life's a dream, but you always have the challenge of growing up in the spotlight - how you manage yourself, and how you deal with it, being a kid and then growing into an adult with the whole world watching.
What I've admired is that she's always looked to develop. When she got dropped from the T20 side [in 2022], you just knew she wasn't the type of character that would go away. She would look at her game, she would look at where the game's going, and understand what she needed to do to continue to get better. Cricket is a very individual sport - individuals in a team game - and she's the type of character who will go and get her own support as she needs.
I remember we had a coach in Melbourne who used to tell the story of giving her underarms and overarms for eight or nine hours a day - and it would just be Pez getting in good positions, high front elbow, beautiful drives. It's the stuff that you don't see, off the park, that she does, her relentlessness to continue to get better. It reminded me of the time she told me she would go down to the nets with her father for hours as well, enjoying the time with a man who was so instrumental in her getting into the sport and being in the position she is in.
Thinking back, I reckon her getting dropped from the T20 side would've been a marker for Pez to say, "Right, where do I want to get to?" Remember, this was a player who had already won everything there was to be won in the game. But she had a lot of desire and love to play cricket for Australia. Let's not forget she had the opportunity to choose football over cricket - and we're very fortunate she picked the way she did.
Of course, from a New Zealand perspective, Pez's tale is incomplete without bringing up the heartbreak she caused us at the 2010 T20 World Cup final in Barbados. Fresh-faced youngster, still 19, tasked with bowling the final over, Sophie Devine looking like she could pull it off, last ball… it was probably fitting that it was her right foot that was able to stop that ball, to stop that boundary to take it to a Super Over. Those football years coming good for her!
From very early on, she was the type of player who always wanted the ball or wanted to be in those pressure situations. That's what stands out most for me: she's always been there or thereabouts in some really key moments in Australia's successes over such a long period of time, the person who has done the job for them. She's a big-match player, and she's someone you always felt was irreplaceable.
Not just that, but the influence she had on others within that Australian side and her domestic side as well. I think when you've played with some of the greats, you can just see that they're an echelon above in those little things that they do day in, day out, that maybe some of us other players didn't have that same relentlessness or the level of detailing on those really little key aspects, the little one-percenters. You could see from afar those little things that she did that stood her above others.
She was a nightmare to prepare against. She had control of the game, and she put such a high price on her wicket (and sadly for us, when she did give opportunities, we dropped a few of them!). There are players with whom you just try multiple plans: attack her front pad, try and restrict her scoring, get her to hit square. She always found a way.
I remember playing against Pez at the WACA. Melbourne Stars played Sydney Sixers, and her and Alyssa Healy put on 199, batting through the innings on a 30-something-degree day. It had gone from not being very enjoyable to actually quite pleasant watching because of her ability to just expand her game at the drop of a hat. And I always had the best seat in the house, being the wicketkeeper.
There's a nice aura around Pez when you play against her and when you have conversations with her. She's quite a soft-spoken person, but someone that has a real spiritual aspect to her as well - a really clear understanding of who she is.
She loves thinking deeply, she's very much into journalling. I've had lots of conversations with her in the changing room in Mount Maunganui, just talking about the game, her journey in those Australian colours, and the different challenges she has.
She's been the face of women's cricket since she first came in, when Australia decided they would invest heavily in the game. It was Ellyse Perry, Alyssa Healy and Meg Lanning who were the face of Australian cricket, and that built a profile right back then to allow the professionalism of the game in Australia. Then you look at the WPL now, where she's in a similar boat with such a massive profile.
It's amazing when you talk to boys and girls, ask them their favourite player, and it's always Ellyse Perry. You would be shocked at times, asking young boys in Australia, and some of them would pick Ellyse Perry over the likes of Steve Smith and whatnot.
That's the marker she's put on the game. She'll forever be the person who shifted the game and led the way in terms of professionalism of the game and also the professionalism of an athlete within the game as well.
Greatest women's cricketer of the 21st century? Ellyse Perry is the greatest of all time!
As told to Yash Jha
Stats are for the 2000-2025 period