Ellyse Perry

Ellyse Perry is an accomplished Australian cricketer and former footballer, making her international debut in both sports at the age of 16. After making her international debut in both cricket and football in 2007, Ellyse Perry established herself as a dual-sport prodigy, becoming the youngest Australian to play international cricket across all three formats. Her One Day International debut on July 22, 2007, and Twenty20 International and Test debuts in February 2008 followed her debut for New South Wales in the Women’s National Cricket League (WNCL) at the start of the 2007–08 season. On the football pitch, Perry scored a goal in her debut match against Hong Kong in 2007 for the Australian national team.

She became the first Australian to appear in both ICC and FIFA World Cups in 2011, having earned the 2009 W-League Young Player of the Year award playing domestically for Canberra United. In 2014, Perry strategically transitioned to a single-sport professional career in cricket, a decision that quickly led to a series of record-breaking individual achievements. In 2017, she set the record for the highest score by an Australian woman in Test matches with an unbeaten 213 runs. Her T20 International career saw her become the first Australian to play in 100 T20Is in 2018, the same year she became the first Australian to take 100 T20I wickets.

Continuing to break new ground, Perry made history in 2021 as the first woman to score 5,000 runs and take 300 wickets in international cricket, and further became Australia’s most capped women’s international cricketer in her 252nd match. Her leadership was prominently displayed in 2022 when she became the first player to captain 100 WBBL games, cementing her legacy as a transformative figure in professional women’s sports.