{"id":785646,"date":"2026-07-07T22:09:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T22:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/785646\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T22:09:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T22:09:12","slug":"weakened-side-reality-making-aussies-14th-world-cup-special-and-proving-a-15th-is-coming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/785646\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Weakened side\u2019 reality making Aussies\u2019 14th World Cup special \u2014 and proving a 15th is coming"},"content":{"rendered":"

As Australia dusts out the cabinet, rearranges the 13 World Cup trophies there to make room for the latest acquisition, there\u2019s reason to pause and reflect on just how special this 2026 T20 World Cup victory is<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a record-extending seventh T20 World Cup title, yes. And one that restores Australia\u2019s status as the world beater after sacrificing both the one-day and T20 crown in the last two editions of the tournaments, absolutely.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

But it represents something else too \u2013 a successful generational transition.<\/p>\n

Over the last 16 years, this national women\u2019s cricket team has been the powerhouse of women\u2019s cricket with nine world Cups and an Commonwealth Games gold medal. At the centre of that charge have been, the now household names, Alyssa Healy, Ellyse Perry, Meg Lanning and Rachel Haynes.<\/p>\n

Lanning was captain for 10 years and the transition of captaincy to Healy in 2024, who had been in the team for as long as Lanning, meant stability was one of the keys to Australia\u2019s success and popularity.<\/p>\n

These women were at the forefront of the biggest boom in women\u2019s cricket. They entered the Australian set-up when the title of \u2018cricketer\u2019 for a female wasn\u2019t a full-time professional job, there was no paid domestic league, no broadcast deal and their names weren\u2019t recognisable. They exited it, with the landscape vastly changed.<\/p>\n

Australia’s captain Sophie Molineux. Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS \/ AFPSource: AFP<\/p>\n

There were concerns the loss of so many big names would affect the team\u2019s global standing, popularity and familiarity. Losing the T20 World Cup in 2024, then the ICC World Cup in 2025, which saw Australia knocked out in the semi-finals in both, didn\u2019t help those fears. Leading into this tournament some branches of the UK media even referred to a \u2018weakened Australian side\u2019.<\/p>\n

But here we are, world champions once again, and the beaming faces from the Aussies\u2019 celebration photo represent the changing face of this cricket team. There\u2019s the veterans of Beth Mooney, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt and Ash Gardner, but also the next generation of stars, Phoebe Litchfield, Georgia Voll, Annabel Sutherland and 20-year-old Lucy Hamilton.<\/p>\n

The generational transition of the Australian Women\u2019s Cricket Team has been seamless. The popularity and familiarity of this team didn\u2019t fall off a cliff with the retirements of some of the team\u2019s longest standing and most successful stars. Instead, the new talent has been filtered in over the years and amplified in a way that has allowed them to share in the spotlight rather than wait in someone else\u2019s shadow.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a star team but also a team of equally shining stars.<\/p>\n

So much so, it\u2019s hard to know whether some are the new generation or the old, they\u2019re just simply a recognisable part of the Australian women\u2019s cricket team.<\/p>\n

Scenes like those of captain Sophie Molineux celebrating this win on the balcony of Lords<\/a>, Shane Warne style with stump aloft, and the replicating the iconic 1997 photo of Warney being drenched in beer, only served to make Australians love this team even more.<\/p>\n

Beth Mooney is undisputedly one of the veterans. She\u2019s played for Australia for the past 10 years and starred with a player of the match performance in the final at Lords and became the first person to be named player of the tournament at a T20 World Cup twice. This was the ninth World Cup she\u2019s played in, (winning four T20 and two ICC) but first without her opening partner and former captain Alyssa Healy. <\/p>\n

Instead she opened with Georgia Voll, who was playing in her first World Cup but is far from an unknown or a \u2018new face\u2019. The 22 year old was leading the ICC T20I batting rankings with Mooney second heading into the tournament.<\/p>\n

Australia celebrate their T20 World Cup win on the famous Lord\u2019s balcony. Picture Instagram @iccSource: Supplied Source Known<\/p>\n

Prior to the World Cup, Mooney told Fox Sports News about the strong partnership on the pitch she had with Voll yet the clear generational change off it, from the music selected for trips and gym training, to the way they spoke.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a little bit of a generational divide with the language and the phrases that get used,\u201d Mooney said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd usually I\u2019m one of the last people to know what something means because I don\u2019t have TikTok.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ellyse Perry doesn\u2019t have TikTok either and her career has straddled the line of pre and post professionalism. The undisputed G.O.A.T, this was Perry\u2019s ninth World Cup win \u2013 more than any other player in history. At 35, she\u2019s now the eldest in the side, but only a fool would doubt she will be there at the next T20 World Cup in two years time. She\u2019s been a leader, pioneer and game changer for women\u2019s cricket and still one of the most recognisable faces in the team.<\/p>\n

Cricket Australia would have once been forgiven for fearing the allure and gravitas of the team would change without Perry in it.<\/p>\n

But this World Cup win, and the seamless transition of its stars, have proven that, whether or not she plays on to the next World Cup and even the one after it, there\u2019s a whole new generation of cricket stars who have been inspired by the last decade and a half of growth and success. <\/p>\n

And they\u2019re ready to carry the mantle and continue the kind of dominance that we\u2019ve come to expect and celebrate from the Australian women\u2019s cricket team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Australia dusts out the cabinet, rearranges the 13 World Cup trophies there to make room for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":785647,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-785646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=785646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/785646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/785647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=785646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=785646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=785646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}