Quotes from Ellyse Perry

I'd grown up knowing all about Don Bradman and visited his museum in Bowral quite a few times and absolutely loved the place and then to go back there and receive my baggy green and play my first Test match there at the oval, and obviously my parents were there and a lot of family and friends, it was really cool.

When I'm away from sport and not doing something I have much self-belief in, I can lack self-confidence at times.

I'm quite different to my brother. As kids, I was his shadow - I always wanted to do things with him. I'm sure I cramped his style a little.

A lot of my friends who were really sporty in year 7 and 8, in years 9 and 10 they stopped playing. It was a shame.

For me, growing up and watching Test cricket and absolutely loving it, that's been the pinnacle for me with cricket.

Canberra always had a great sense of community when I was there.

Having success in World Cups is some of the biggest career highlights that I've had, but more generally speaking, the biggest highlight is just the development of the sport and being involved in this period of women's cricket, but also in women's sport in general in Australia, where it's been a bit of a watershed moment.

I just enjoy batting. I love it. It's a craft and I love plugging away at it. I guess getting to do that in a match was the ultimate pleasure to be out there and do something I've been doing for a long time.

We've still got some of our best friends living in Canberra and I still do some training with one of the strength and conditioning coaches at the Brumbies.

I play cricket. I'm a professional cricketer and I guess my job is to hopefully help Australia win games of cricket.

If you're going to do something, you should go all in and be absorbed in the process and want to do well and be OK with being really consumed by it. But at the same time, I guess the balance there lies in not letting the result define who you are as a person and your self-worth.

My paternal poppa, Alec, was a taxi driver and swimming coach. He taught all his grandchildren how to swim and loved all kinds of sport.

Growing up, I did a lot of work that was technically based. So, I sort of feel that, no matter where you're playing, the basics are still the basics. Then it's just about adjusting on the day.

I think a lot of sporting organisations are really sitting up and taking notice, putting in some great programs and investing a lot into women's sports.

I think most girls would say they'd love to play more Tests if it was possible.

One of my favourite parts of training is doing it with Dad in the local nets. When I do that, I feel like a kid again. We never argue. He has to put up with some bad moods from me when I'm not hitting it as I'd like. He's very placid. He's not a pushy parent at all.

When I started out there weren't even contracts for players and now all the girls on the team are full-time professional athletes, I guess seeing that evolve over a period of time has been incredible.

More girls are taking up sport and realising it's a legitimate option for them to forge a career.

My dad is my hero. We have a strong relationship around sport. It has been such a big part of his life and now mine, and for him to be one of my coaches is a great thing.

But, without a doubt, my favourite thing? It's sitting in a change room like this after a match. There's no time frame on how long you'll sit there. There's no formality. You're just enjoying each other's company, thinking about cricket.

A lot has evolved and changed in women's sport in the last 10 years - particularly football and cricket. So, I think my timing, in terms of being able to play both for a while, was fortunate.

There's two extremes in male sport: there's complete and total worship of them, or complete and utter contempt. Those extremes create huge problems at either end. And it creates distance, too, and leads them into a bubble.

If I have to do a speech, if there's no way I can get out of it, or if it's something I really should do, I won't sleep the night before. I'll feel ill the entire day leading up to it. I won't be able to eat if it's after a dinner, which makes things even worse.

Put yourself into every situation in training and against every style of bowling, and do that for hours and hours and hours. Then when you get to a match, it's almost instinctive the way you play because you've done it so often in training.