As the national women’s cricket team lead the first innings in Canterbury, Australia’s High Commissioner to the UK, Alexander Downer says he is ‘disappointed’ not one journalist on the Ashes tour attended the official women’s team function last week despite almost a dozen attending the same men’s function.
While our former Prime Minister John Howard and former Government Minister Ros Kelly were among the 150 attendees at the Australia House function on August 3, there was not one tweet from a journalist about the High Commissioner’s event.
“Media were invited but unfortunately no journalists were able to make the [women’s team] event, which was quite disappointing,” Hon Alexander Downer AC told The Weekly Online.
Cricket Australia – who The Weekly understand flew the men’s side to London in business class while sending the women’s side over in premium economy – have tried to distance themselves from the controversy.
A spokesperson told The Weekly Online the function was “never designed to be a media event”.
“It was an opportunity for the team to meet important members of the Australian community in London in their support of cricket, along with leading British executives in the sporting industry and other sectors in the UK.”
Cricket Australia would not comment on the airfare disparity, but pointed The Weekly Online to a media release announcing ‘significant’ pay rises for Australian female cricketers earlier this year “lifting potential earnings to $85,000 over the coming year.”
In comparison, Michael Clarke isn’t called the $6 million man for nothing.
John Howard and Southern Stars captain Meg Lanning at the Australia House function.
And speaking of the men’s side, sources said their function in June was completely full with 200 in attendance and a pack of mainstream media.
And Clarkey’s joke about turning down a knighthood at the event made national headlines, while tweets about the women’s function were mostly from the players themselves.
Despite the journalists on tour RSVP’ing their declines to the women’s event, Cricket Australia remain pleased with the general media coverage, confirming Channel Nine’s Sixty Minutes have been travelling with the team and broadcasters Channel Nine and Network Ten will be televising upcoming women’s cricket games.
The Women’s Ashes Test can only be watched online while the Men’s Ashes Series was broadcast on Channel Nine’s GEM, which peaked nationally at 1.582 million viewers during the first test.
“Women’s cricket is rightly starting to be treated like a mainstream sport rather than a niche offering,” a Cricket Australia spokesperson said.
So as Meg Lanning leads the Southern Stars at Canterbury, we hope they take the urn. Maybe then sports journalists will attend their functions and Cricket Australia will bump them up a cabin class.
You can watch the 2015 Women’s Ashes on cricket.com.au and keep up to date on the scores here.
