Is Ellyse Perry Australia's greatest ever athlete?

Ellyse Perry is a trailblazing Australian cricketer and footballer who has made history in both sports. In fact, Perry has a legitimate claim to be one of Australia’s greatest-ever athletes. Let’s take quick a look back at her incredible journey so far.

Born on November 3, 1990, in the Sydney suberb of Wahroonga, New South Wales, Perry showed her athletic prowess from an early age. While attending Beecroft Primary School, Perry would be active in a range of disciplines including athletics, tennis, football, touch rugby, golf and of course, cricket.

In fact, by age nine she had started playing cricket with future Australian cricket teammate Alyssa Healy, and the pair would continue to do so throughout their high school years and beyond. Outside of her friendship with Healy, Perry would also hone her football and cricket skills by playing alongside her brothers.

By the time Perry had reached high school, she was known for her passion and ability across virtually all sports, and was named as the sports captain at Pymble Ladies' College, as well as the captain of the athletics and cricket teams. In January 2007, at just 16-years-old, Perry made her debut for New South Wales in an under-19 interstate tournament, scoring 74 runs and taking three wickets in three matches. Just one month later, she earned a spot on the Australian youth team for a tour of New Zealand.

In July 2007, she would be fast tracked into the Australian Women’s Cricket team. She made her One Day International debut in Darwin on 22 July at the age of 16 years and 8 months, becoming the youngest-ever cricketer to represent Australia. She would get her T20 and Test cricket call ups for Australia in February 2008. On 15 February, Perry became the youngest-ever Australian Test cricketer, debuting at the age of 17 years and 3 months.

Despite her growing presence in cricket, Perry was not a one-trick pony and simultaneously emerged as a football star. Perry made her debut for the Matildas on August 4, 2007, at Hong Kong Stadium – aged 16 years and 9 months old at the time, having made her international cricket debut less than two weeks prior. 

Perry's exceptional athleticism shone as she netted a goal in just the second minute of that historic match. Her second international goal came during the 2008 AFC Women's Asian Cup, in a match against South Korea.

Domestically, she would play for for the Central Coast Mariners in the 2008–09 W-League season, and Canberra United at the start of the 2009 season. She would become the joint recipient of the 2009 W-League Young Player of the Year award with Brisbane Roar's Elise Kellond-Knight.

At the same time, Perry would continue to make strides in cricket, playing in her first Cricket World Cup in 2009, while also helping Australia win back-to-back T20 World Titles in 2010 and 2011, with her bowling and fielding proving to be a vital asset for the side. She has built a formidable reputation for creating catches and run-outs off her own bowls.

Football was never far away though, and Perry was called up to Matildas squad for the 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup in Germany. During the group game against Norway, she made history by becoming the first Australian to grace both the ICC and FIFA World Cups. In the quarter-final clash against Sweden, Perry secured a place in the starting lineup and demonstrated her scoring prowess by netting Australia's sole goal in a match that ended with a 3–1 defeat.

As a result, there was tension between the two worlds, and Perry was given an ultimatum by Canberra United to either commit to football fully or find a new club in 2012. She would go on to sign for Sydney FC who at first complied with the arrangement, but things became sticky towards the end of the 2012 season as scheduling between the two sports conflicted. 

Perry would not play for Sydney FC in the W-League grand final and instead opted to play for Australia in a warm-up game for the Cricket World Cup. 

Ultimately, as both sports became more professional, Perry could realistically only commit to one. She inevitably chose cricket, playing her last game for Syndey FC in 2015. 

"Essentially, both sports have grown so much and developed so much in the last couple of years that they really demand people to be full-time professional athletes,” Perry told the Roar in 2018. “I ended up in cricket and haven't played any football recently. I truly enjoyed my time playing football."

There was also a sense of national pride in her decision, with Perry telling the Financial Times in 2019 that “Cricket is our only truly national game. I absolutely loved the sport [football] but it doesn’t have the same cut-through with the Australian public as cricket does.”

She continued to build her name in the cricket world during this time and by 2015 had claimed a Cricket World Cup win for Australia (in 2013) and three T20 World Titles, amassing numerous Player of the Series awards in that time. In the 2017 Ashes series, she recorded her first test century and soon made it a double. Her score of 213 not out would set a new record for the highest score by an Australian in women's Tests.

Despite her success with the bat, Perry is considered a true all-rounder and has been just as important to the Australian side as a bowler as she has with the bat in her hand. Amidst media speculation around her future as an all-rounder due to ongoing hamstring issues in 2019, Perry said: "The only way I want to play cricket is as a batter and bowler. I don't think I'd offer enough as a batter to keep playing, and don't think I'd enjoy it, to be honest.

So far, Perry has notched up a host of awards including six Belinda Clark medals and three Women's Ashes Player of the Series awards. In December 2020, Perry was named as the recipient of the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Award for ICC Female Cricketer of the Decade, as well as the awards for women's ODI and T20I cricketer of the decade, recognising her "superlative performances with bat and ball in all three formats" from 1 January 2011 to 7 October 2020. accolades 

At 32, Perry still seems to be in top form. During the 2023 Ashes series, she proved to be a reliable middle-order bat and took key wickets to help Australia retain the Ashes. During that series she became the first ever Australian cricketer, male or female, to hit 6000 runs and take 300 wickets at international level.

With almost two decades in the game, and despite dealing with some ongoing knee injury issues, Perry is enjoying her cricket as much – and as a role model for young women all around the world – as ever.

“I still love being involved. In terms of motivation, it's still exactly the same, if not more. In a lot of senses, it's (women's sport) arrived and things just become more and more exciting every year," Perry was quoted as saying by Cricket Australia in August 2023. "After our Ashes campaign over in the UK and the way that that was followed, the crowd numbers that we drew, the level of competition that it presented –  it's hard not to want to be involved for as long as possible."

A true sports heroine who has not only succeeded at the highest level, but has consistently been named as a global standout for decades – Perry's name has to be near the top of the list when talking about Australia's greatest-ever athletes. With her unparalleled career and international success across two sports, who could possibly be named ahead of her?