Fair Game
Reviewed By Nan van Dissel January 28, 2022
Author Alex Blackwell with Megan Maurice.
Distributor: Hachette Australia
ISBN: 9780733648281
Publisher: Hachette Australia
Release Date: February 2022
Website: https://www.hachette.com.au
Women’s cricket in Australia has been strong for a very long time, with much of its very recent history happening totally out of the public eye. There have always been fans, who appreciated the talents of exciting women players, but it was not until recent years, that the women’s game caught the eye of the media and hence the general sports’ loving public. It is due to determined, committed women’s players, like Alex Blackwell, who had the conviction that the women’s team deserved more than existing in the shadow of the Australian men’s cricket team that real progress has been made, to enhance the remuneration and working conditions of the women players.
Not only has Alex Blackwell, former Australian women’s cricket captain, represented Australia 251 times across all its formats – Tests, One Day Internationals and T20 Internationals, she also spent 20 years playing elite cricket, but also spent this time advocating for the women who played the game. Not so many years ago the women’s game was being played on barren grounds with minimal financial support, in front of small crowds, touring players were put up in very basic hotels and they were generally the very poor relatives of Australian cricket.
Alex’s insightful book, Fair Game, tracks her years as a junior cricketer with her twin sister, to her retirement thirty years later. She, not only recounts her adventures, great highs, the friendships created all around the world and the leadership lessons she learned along the way, but also the development of Australian Women’s Cricket. Throughout the book, she demonstrates her strong support for the inclusion of LGBTQI people; she was driven to ensure a structure within Cricket Australia, which worked towards best practice guaranteeing that cricket is for everybody.
I highly recommend Fair Game not only to readers who are sports’ fans, but also to those who wish to obtain a greater understanding of women’s struggle for equality and recognition. Women’s cricket has advanced even more since the advent of professionalism, however it still has some way to go to before it is on an equal footing with their male counterparts.