Women's Cricket Australia (1995 - 2003)

Cricket has been played by women in Australia since 1874. Organised competitions have existed at State level since the early 1900’s and National level since 1931/32. The first International game was played in 1934/35, against England.

The Australian Women’s Cricket Council (AWCC) was formed in March, 1931 to administer and develop the game at the National level. The original members of AWCC were Victoria, NSW and Queensland with South Australia and Western Australia affiliating in 1934. ACT and Tasmania affiliated in 1977 and 1982 respectively. In recent times ACT has amalgamated with ACTCA and Tasmania disbanded in 1992and reaffiliated in 1998.

The AWCC was incorporated under the Victorian Companies Code in 1973 being one of the first women’s sporting bodies to incorporate and protect its members. It adopted the business name of Women's Cricket in Australia (Women's Cricket) in November 1995. In October, 1997 Women's Cricket changed its status to become an incorporated association Women's Cricket in Australia Inc.

Australia has been affiliated with the International Women’s Cricket Council (IWCC) since 1958 and is one of eleven countries currently involved in international competition. Australia is the No. 1 ranked international team in the world in both one day and Test Cricket. The first World Cup One Day Series was played by women in England in 1973, two years before the World Cricket concept began for men.

The official name of the National Australian Women's Cricket Team is the Southern Stars

In late 2001, a decision by Women’s Cricket Australia (Women's Cricket) and the Australian Cricket Board (ACB) to trial the integration of the two organisations took place.

Both organisations recognised that it was essential for the sport that as many people as possible from both genders are able to enjoy our game. It became increasingly apparent that having separate organisations undertaking similar roles worked against cricket realising its full potential to attract women and girls to the game. While both organisations were successful in the way they went about administering the sport under their jurisdiction, tackling the task of promoting cricket in this way inevitably resulted in the duplication of human and financial resources.

In order to overcome these issues and to maximise the use of cricket’s resources, Women's Cricket and the ACB agreed to a two-year trial of the integration of their operations.

This approach saw the six key functional areas that both organisations must manage blended together to allow them to service the overall need for the game. These areas are Finance and Administration, Commercial Operations, Cricket Operations, Game Development, Legal Services and Public Affairs.

In embarking on this trial, both Women's Cricket and the ACB recognised that there were likely to be a number of issues that would arise thatrequiring careful and sensitive management.

For this reason, there was a transitional period of two years to smooth the process of integration.

Overseeing the transition was a newly created Women’s Cricket Advisory Committee chaired by the President of Women's Cricket. This Committee included three representatives from the ACB Board and people from each State and the ACT. This Committee was responsible for ensuring that the two bodies merged their operations without any loss of identity or importance for either organisation.

Once integreated Women's Cricket Australia became known simply as Women's Cricket, as a program of the Australian Cricket Board

Member

• Dive, Mollie (1913 - 1997)

  Mollie Dive was a life member of Women's Cricket Australia

• Mitchell, Ann (1945 - )

  Anne Mitchell is a Life Member of Women's Cricket Australia

Related Corporate Bodies

• Australian Women's Cricket Council (1931 - )

  The Australian Women's Cricket Council was the pre-cursor organisation to Women's Cricket Australia

• Cricket Australia (2003 - )

  Women's Cricket Australia amalgamated with the Australian Cricket Board to form Cricket Australia

Australian Women Exhibitions

• She's Game: Women Making Australian Sporting History, Australian Women's Archives Project, 2007, http://www.womenaustralia.info/exhib/sg/sport-home.html. [ Details... ]