How Alyssa Healy took her chance and launched a golden era for Australian women’s cricket |
With a typically cheeky quip about the need to spend more time on her golf, Alyssa Healy drew the curtain on one of Australian cricket’s most game-changing careers.
It was not a huge surprise to hear that Healy, 35, had decided now was the time to give up cricket, with a farewell series against India to give supporters one final chance to salute her.
Alyssa Healy announced her retirement from international cricket on Tuesday.Credit: Kate Geraghty
Injuries had afflicted each of her past two World Cup campaigns for Australia, neither of which ended with the world’s most feared team reaching the tournament final. The side is regenerating, and Healy’s exit will advance that process.
But there can be no doubt that its future direction will be shaped in large part by the type of aggressive, barnstorming cricket that Healy had done so much to embed as the trademark of the most trophy-laden national sporting team on the planet.
Who can forget Healy’s destruction of India’s bowlers in that magical evening at the MCG in early March 2020, when 86,174 spectators were thrilled by Australia’s march to the Twenty20 World Cup crown on home soil?
Or two years later, when Healy utterly destroyed England with an innings of 170 to dominate the ODI Cup final in Christchurch?
These were the big occasions for which her brand of fearless, shot-laden batting were made. Healy could score right around the ground, and had the power to clear the rope over the bowler’s head on a regular........