Australia to play England in final of T20 women’s World Cup, so why has the event been invisible?

Darcie Brown’s scream in the wilderness came Monday morning.

Australia edged out India, eliminating them from the T20 World Cup and advancing to the semi-finals of the tournament. Neglect of the squad forced 23-year-old fast bowler Brown to follow at home.

Australia poses with Prime products for a photo ahead of the T20 World Cup in England in June.Getty Images

Unlike his UK team-mates, this meant Brown was painfully aware that this tournament, for all the team’s achievements, he was almost invisible when it came to media and public exposure.

Yes, any tournament played in parallel with the FIFA World Cup could present an uphill battle for oxygen, he noted. However, this did not seem to affect the interest and participation in the games.

“There is any danger in the main media in Aus saying our girls are in the cricket World Cup,” he wrote on Instagram.

“If I wasn’t actually involved I wouldn’t know if it was on the air or not. I saw it mentioned maybe 2/3 times during the month they were there.”

“I understand football is taking over from the World Cup – as it should be because it’s a world sport. But why don’t you put more Australian spirit into cricket and support cricket as well? Or does nobody really care about Australia? People in England do, 27,000 of them at last night’s game…”

Australia duly defeated the West Indies to win the tournament final against England, which will be played in the early hours of Monday morning (AEST).

Ask any Australian sports follower if they care about this World Cup and they’ll always tell you they do, but cricket hasn’t made it easy for them to follow it. The ICC’s 2023 rights deal to show all World Cups in Australia on Amazon Prime between 2024 and 2027 has severely reduced disruption to these events (men’s and women’s).

When this agreement was reached there were immediate concerns about how it would affect Australia’s large but shallow cricket following. Unlike the UK, which relies on a rusty crowd of spectators who attend matches and buy Sky subscriptions despite exorbitant prices, Australia’s connection to cricket is much broader but more fleeting. Most of the game’s audience is a bit casual and not prepared to jump through too many hoops to watch or participate.

Ash Gardner celebrates her half-century in the semi-final with Ellyse Perry.Getty Images

When more than 86,000 spectators traveled to the MCG to watch the World Cup final in March 2020, they did so without major publicity and attractive ticket prices.

As well as rights fees, Amazon has also spent money recruiting the likes of Pat Cummins and Usman Khawaja as ambassadors, and has also paid for scores of media members to fly to World Cups and last year’s World Test Championship final. But its primary coverage was bare-bones world broadcast, with no Australian studio broadcast and nothing during rain delays.

Darcie Brown’s Instagram post highlighted the fact that the Women’s World Cup in Australia is not receiving enough mainstream attention.instagram

Even if a cricket viewer has Prime and is aware that games are shown for free on the streaming service, there is only one streaming viewer who is concerned about kick-off times for T20 games in the UK: India. Australia will face England in the final at Lord’s, with the match kicking off at 12.30pm (Monday AEST).

There is also the business model of the ICC, which fills the calendar with World Cups. T20 World Cups for men and women are held every two years. The fact that ODI World Cups and the men’s Champions Cup are also on the calendar means at least one “global event” almost every year, often two.

Famine is key to the nation uniting behind the Socceroos and Matildas every four years; lack of sleep and so on, even if their chances of winning trophies are much lower.

Paul Marsh, the players’ boss who was at Lord’s for the game Brown referred to, also spoke to members of the squad during his time in England and said there was a sense of surprise within the team about the lack of airtime, particularly for the Matildas.

“Australians love to win on the world stage and this is a game that all of Australia will rally around,” he said of the final. “The performance of our Australian women’s cricket team has been outstanding over the years and throughout this tournament.”

Brown’s protest should give Australian cricket some time to think. On Monday morning, this storied team will qualify for the World Cup final at Lord’s for the first time. This may be the pinnacle of Ellyse Perry’s long and successful career, but it could also be the first tournament final for the likes of Phoebe Litchfield and Georgia Voll.

The decision is also an opportunity to remind their old foes of the Australian team’s priority after England made the most of improved fitness and better pitch conditions to edge past South Africa in the other half on Thursday night.

When asked if his team had any psychological impact on England, Perry came up with a brilliant line that could have been all over social media this week had it been uttered by a Socceroo, a Matilda or even a Wimbledon competitor.