Perhaps great achievements in the sport are called so because they birth special dates that carry a timeless appeal for fans and cricketers alike.
1983 will almost always remind the Indian cricket fan of his team’s maiden World Cup win. 2004 will always remind one of Brian Lara’s epic 400 while May 23, 2018, will always remind the cricket fan about a period of time marked by remorse, for it was then where AB De Villiers called time on his career.
Remember the name- Ellyse Perry
But to make things even, in the sense of bringing attention to an often under-appreciated fabric of the sport- women’s cricket- perhaps few dates would matter as much as November 11, 2017.
Wondered why?
It was on November 11, 2017, at Sydney that Australia’s Ellyse Perry became the first women cricketer to strike a double hundred in a Day-Night Test, in a Test featuring the pink ball. In so doing, Perry also contributed the highest individual Test score by an Australian woman.
In a sport obsessed with records or awards, there’s no dearth of either in Ellyse Perry’s bag. An ICC Cricketer of the Year, as also the winner of the prestigious Allan Border medal, Ellyse Perry has been a member of a world-cup winning side and has generated numbers that demand awe and stand as a subject of envy for fans.
As a tireless all-rounder for Australia, Perry’s unwavering commitment to hard work and that quintessential smile mark her 3904 international runs and 252 wickets with a sense of modesty and innocence. These are honest traits that protect a record that is, for the lack of a better expression, tremendous.
A savory career
Perry’s a record that demands being bejeweled with cosmological decorations but readily eschews any chances for its earned for a country that doesn’t quite believe in the idea of flaunting achievements.
Have you found Gilchrist reflecting on his Test, ODI hundreds? Does McGrath remember the number of his five-wicket-hauls? In the same light, you cannot be blamed for wondering whether Meg Lanning, Perry’s good friend and the captain even remember her ODI batting average?
Forget the cricketers, the Aussie fan, one who likes to have a go at his rivals, seldom shying away from offering choicest words if a need arises but also one that has the heart to buy a ‘mate’ a beer at the conclusion of an encounter hardly tongues the Don’s batting average when a simple representation of it may put an effective end to a discussion about superiority in the game.
An all round star
Whatever Perry does- going airborne in pursuit of a blinder at point or at the outfield, dancing down the track to a spinner, lifting a medium pacer over mid-on for a six or taking the smile off Australia’s opponents- is done with the precision of a mathematician and the eagerness of a ballerina, who doesn’t quite know where to stop in the search for perfection.
It isn’t that one may not find Ellyse Perry’s opponents with better bowling figures or aggregates of runs. Sana Mir has more ODI wickets while the likes of Stafanie Taylor, Suzie Bates, Mithali are far ahead of her where it comes to collecting runs.
But that hardly anyone comes close to the quintessential Ellyse Perry zest for enjoying the game whilst entertaining those who come to watch a cricketer who’s every bit as talented as she’s freakishly good in the ‘looks’ department.
And maybe the latter is an aspect that could possibly threaten the existence of the cricketer behind the luscious smile and the maverick genius.
Cricket isn’t a theatre of physicality. That some fans rather absurdly limit it to being a beauty pageant on the cricket field is every bit deplorable as it is needless in appreciation of women cricketers.
Not just good-looking, there’s more!
Was Kallis respected because he was an intoxicating reminder of herculean powers? Were Shane Watson, David Gower or Imran Khan respected because their personalities resembled an amorous Hollywood-character?
While there’s nothing outrageous about Google-directed searches, such as, “Ellyse Perry best pictures”, it also in some way highlights a rabid trend, one to which Smriti Mandhana belongs, where you regard a Women cricketer- perhaps a flawed biased term in its conception- as being a beholder of great beauty while her accomplishments follow the physical charm.
Isn’t that strange, a bit like the uncanny ease with which Perry pulls of episodes of intense rigor on the ground, for instance, her 213 against England was a Test where she’d come into bat, remain unbeaten, immediately after striking her 213?
That there’s so much to be proud of women’s cricket, batswomen scoring n the upper echelons of 80, a feat so seldom marked with ink- from Jan ’14 to Dec ’16, Perry amassed 1343 runs at 89.5- begs for more attention that it is given.
That a gang of crazily passionate girls Perry, Schutt, Lanning, Molineux, Ferling- driven in their love for the sport- others are carrying forward the bastion of excellence that is Australian Cricket is inspiring- stands out as a defeat for us fans who, for some reason, will never own up to our mansplaining of Women’s Cricket, complaining cheaply that men’s game has better bowlers, bigger six-hitters and whatnot.
But let it be reminded, to every De Villiers, there’s an Ellyse Perry, the freak-hitter. To every Jason Holder, there’s Perry the bowler.
While the fab-four are yet to strike a pink-ball double while Perry already has carries some weight just as the fact that none among Hope, Martin Guptill, Roy, Hales, Morgan, Fakhar, Babar, Kohli, Kuldeep, have taken to the ball while Perry has disturbed many a timber with it already.