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England women star-struck at MCG

Rosalie Birch | 07:09 UK time, Saturday, 2 February 2008

is the home of Australian cricket, their equivalent of Lord's, so it was a great privilege to start our international series there on Friday.

Around 27,000 people had arrived prior to the to watch us in our own Twenty20 contest.

And while there was obviously a huge amount of support for the home side, there was considerable noise made by English supporters - and some of the Indian fans were particularly vocal.

Many of our side that took the field at the MCG .

Playing at Lord’s was an incredible experience, with its history and reputation alone having quite an intimidating effect.

Me with my Sussex and England team-mates at 'the G, from left: Sarah Taylor, Laura Marsh, yours truly and Caroline Atkins'

The ‘G’ (as everyone here calls it!) was awesome in its own way - the huge towering stands create a cauldron effect - and with the crowd spread around the ground, it created a perfect atmosphere for our game, and I loved the experience even though we lost.

However, I cannot imagine what it would have been like for the men following us, with 89,000 people in the stadium.

We got a taste of that afterwards when we were entertained by Cricket Victoria in the Olympic Room.

It’s hard enough to hear captain Lottie Edwards shouting at me on the boundary when there’s only a few thousand people in the ground, so we’d have to resort to sign language if we played in front of many more!

Back in the Olympic Room, there were a few legends – Shane Warne, Cathy Freeman and my personal favourite (Kel from Kath & Kim).

I had a good old chinwag with Glenn, and was trying to sort out us appearing in the show as Sharon’s indoor cricket team mates.

Australian actor Glenn Robbins... and me!

He actually sounded quite interested… but I think it was just because he’s a very good actor!

Unfortunately we didn’t get the opportunity to meet any of the Australia or India players before their game because they started very soon after us.

The whole experience was great for women’s cricket as it gave us more exposure to those people arriving at the ground beforehand to watch our game.

There are plans for our women’s Twenty20 to be part of next year’s , and the game at the MCG has given me a huge hunger for more.

I think it will be great to play our games either directly before or after the men’s games – it would give spectators more for their money and give them a chance to experience a women’s game.

Some people believe that women's cricket can't provide the necessary level of excitement for Twenty20 but many people who do make the effort to come and watch us are often surprised by how much they enjoy it.

It’s not necessarily about fours and sixes, although I would agree that big hitting plays a huge part in Twenty20, but it’s all relative.

We have some very exciting batsmen who are more than capable of hitting sixes, and our fielding is exemplary.

Hopefully with the World Twenty20 in England next year many more people will get the chance to see what our game’s all about.

both on and off the field have been going well.

We have been practising with real intensity and although we have not totally found our consistent winning form yet, there have been glimpses of brilliance with bat, ball and in the field in our games so far.

We just need to combine these, and we have a very strong side. The Aussies look a good unit but we know when we play at our best we can challenge them.

°ä´Ç³¾³¾±ð²Ô³Ù²õÌýÌýPost your comment

  • 1.
  • At 09:58 AM on 02 Feb 2008,
  • Imran Khan wrote:

Hi I Am Imran From Pakistan I Love Cricket When Ever Aussies Play Aganist Any Country One Man I Want to Watch Adam Gilchirst Be Coz Off His Batting He Is Treet To Watch But Back Foot Fornt Foot Cover Dirve Cut Short All Shorts In Book He Have It Internation Cricket Miss Adam Gilchirst Batting Gilly We Will Miss U Best Wishes For GILLY

  • 2.
  • At 10:05 AM on 02 Feb 2008,
  • Julia wrote:

Good use of the word cauldron - also nice suit.

  • 3.
  • At 10:44 AM on 02 Feb 2008,
  • Golden Duck wrote:

If anyone reading this hasn't been to women's international cricket then start going. Less 6s and 4s maybe but there is skill in abundance, getting to and from the matches is far easier than the men's games and the women get through their overs far quicker than the languid men manage to. Furthermore the women are putting every bit as much commitment into the game without the financial carrots on offer to the blokes.

And Brunty makes for a far more graceful sight running in than Harmison will ever do - oh and Brunty's far more accurate !

Good luck with the tour - won't be easy to say the least - and enjoy it.

  • 4.
  • At 03:32 PM on 02 Feb 2008,
  • Daniel Fernandes wrote:

I also guess in women's cricket there is none of the sledging and bullying that has taken over lots of men's cricket matches. Maybe Hayden and Ponting need to watch the Australian women more often to realise there is no need to resort to sledging in order to win matches....

Anyway all the best for the England team Down Under and hopefuly you keep the Ashes and win the ODI tournament. By the way are any of the England women matches shown on TV?

  • 5.
  • At 06:01 PM on 02 Feb 2008,
  • Rameshwar Singh wrote:

I am Rameshwar Singh from Jaipur, India. I think women can provide the same level of entertainment as men. But more people will watch women's cricket only when its made more glamourous. Colourful and short costumes is one way of attracting crowds. Isn't it true that people watch women's tennis more for glamour then for quality.

Well done to the England Women's team on their victory today in the ODI against Australia! And good to see that you are getting games at Lords and the MCG.

  • 7.
  • At 10:11 PM on 03 Feb 2008,
  • ruth, oxon (npw melbourne) wrote:

Cheese - it was great to watch and great to be in such a venue, though hard to get yourselves heard as a group of supporters!!

  • 8.
  • At 10:13 PM on 03 Feb 2008,
  • ruth, oxon (now melbourne) wrote:

Cheese - it was great to watch and great to be in such a venue, though hard to get yourselves heard as a group of supporters!!

Well done to boggie for getting 3 wickets with spin on her ODI spin debut - gave us the chance to give some back to the aussies with their chants... Boggie Boggie Boggie, Oi Oi Oi!!

  • 9.
  • At 08:05 AM on 04 Feb 2008,
  • donone wrote:

What an experience it must have been. It's true there are obvious differences between mens and womens cricket, and one that alot of men would do well to learn from - the missing ingredient of sportsmanship and fair play, sadly lacking in alot of international (and other) cricket these days - oh for more Adam Gilchrists, an icon, walker toboot and I'm not even an Aussie

  • 10.
  • At 11:10 AM on 05 Feb 2008,
  • Golden Duck wrote:

To the blogger that suggests women's cricket need to be more colourful and have short costumes: Its already every bit as colourful as the bloke's game - there is no difference in the exterior cricket gear used. In fact the Super 4s in England are more colourful than anything the blokes provide. As for the short costumes idea - skirts went out years ago thank goodness (and I'm a bloke by the way). Its okay to follow womens cricket because you find the ladies more attractive than the blokes but they are cricketers not objects for male titilation.

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