Australia name squad for NZ tour and Ashes
The Cricket Australia Women's National Selection Panel (WNSP) on Tuesday named a 14-player squad for the tour to New Zealand in late December and the home series against England in January.
In addition, Cricket Australia on Tuesday also confirmed longstanding broadcast partners the Nine Network and ABC will broadcast more live Commonwealth Bank Southern Stars matches in 2010-11 season than seen ever before, with all five Twenty20 Internationals broadcast.
Nine will give cricket fans a double-dose of cricket action on 12 and 14 January 2011, broadcasting live the Twenty20 matches between Australia against England ahead of the men's Twenty20 Internationals.
Commenting on the squad, WNSP Chair Christina Matthews said: "The Women's National Selection Panel has today announced a 14-player squad for the two-match Twenty20 tour to New Zealand in late December and also for the home series against England in January.
"The only two changes from the squad that won the ICC World Twenty20 in the West Indies are Meg Lanning and Sarah Coyte coming in for Clea Smith who is unavailable due to work commitments and Elyse Villani who has been omitted.
"Both Meg and Sarah have been performing well in domestic cricket and fully deserve their opportunity in the Australian team for the coming summer. Meg is a talented young top-order batter who has started the domestic season well and we look forward to seeing how she goes in national colours if the opportunity presents.
"Sarah is a young all-rounder on the rise who impressed last year in her first season for the Breakers and with the Australian Under-21 team. She bowls good medium pace and is also a very handy lower-order batter.
"Julie Hunter is recovering from a shoulder operation and has been selected pending fitness. Julie has recently started bowling again and has a round of WNCL and the approaching CA Women's Cup competition to prepare herself for this tour with a decision on her progress to be made closer to the tour.
"Jodie Fields is continuing her rehabilitation from her hamstring injury and is progressing well, but will not begin playing until after Christmas and therefore could not be considered. Alex Blackwell will once again captain the team with Shelley Nitschke her vice-captain.
"It's going to be a long, tough summer against very good opposition and we look forward to seeing how we match-up against them.
"We have a great rivalry against both New Zealand and England and they both have very good teams so it shapes as an exciting summer, finishing with the Ashes Test at Bankstown from 22-25 January. We are hopeful that the team can cap-off a good summer by reclaiming the Ashes once more."
Commenting on the new broadcast deal, Cricket Australia CEO James Sutherland said it was great for the promotion of women's cricket.
"To have Channel Nine and the ABC broadcasting more live women's cricket than ever before will be outstanding for the promotion of the sport," Sutherland said.
"We've gone from having three hours of coverage last year to more than 15 hours of live action in 2010-11.
"Since 2007-08, when we introduced double-header Twenty20 games, women's cricket in Australia has continued to grow and with two double-headers and five matches broadcast live this year, the coverage of international women's cricket will be more widespread than ever before in Australia.
"The high-paced action during the one-day and Twenty20 series will help the rivalry ahead of the women's Ashes Test to be played later in January.
"Like the men's team, the England women currently hold the Ashes and I'm sure regaining them is an important goal for the Australia team this summer."
Team: Alex Blackwell (captain), Shelley Nitschke (vice-captain), Jessica Cameron, Sarah Coyte, Sarah Elliott, Rene Farrell, Rachael Haynes, Alyssa Healy, Julie Hunter, Meg Lanning, Erin Osborne, Ellyse Perry, Leah Poulton, Lisa Sthalekar.