A world first: Australia great immortalised with SCG sculpture

Clark was on hand to receive the honour, with the statue revealed outside the iconic Sydney ground just moments before the start of play on the second day of the ongoing Test between Australia and South Africa.

A host of Clark's former teammates and modern-day stars were also in attendance at the unveiling and the former Australia captain was thrilled to accept the honour.

"I'm excited to have the sculpture in place and for people to now look at it and perhaps wonder what that is, who that is and to be able to tell a bit of a story is really important," Clark said.

"The sculpture encapsulates being able to have a go – to be courageous, to take on those challenges and break convention.

"I want people to take away that you can do anything you want if you put your mind to it and you have good people around you, and I think I've been very fortunate to have had great support and have a bit of an imagination to take my game where I wanted to take it, and hopefully the sport is in a better place for it."

Clark's honour roll is as long as many of her contemporaries, with the right-hander holding the record for the most ODI runs scored by an Australian woman and having won two World Cups with her country in 1997 and 2005.

She famously became the first person to score an ODI double century when she smashed 229 runs from just 155 balls against Denmark in 1997, but it's perhaps off the field that she has made her biggest impression since her retirement from the game in 2005.

Clark was just the second female to be inducted into the ICC Hall of Fame in 2011 and has worked in administration and managerial positions for Cricket Australia up until the end of 2020.

As chief executive of Women's Cricket Australia, Clark was pivotal in helping combine the administration of men's and women's cricket in Australia and recently held the role as Director of the ICC T20 World Cup 2020 Local Organising Committee.