Ellyse Perry

I'm quite shy and I absolutely love my job - if you'd call it a job - and I like everything that goes along with it, but I think away from that I'm probably no more interesting or special than anyone else, and so I really like just doing normal stuff, as I'm sure most people in our team do.

I play cricket. I'm a professional cricketer and I guess my job is to hopefully help Australia win games of cricket.

A lot has evolved and changed in women's sport in the last 10 years - particularly football and cricket. So, I think my timing, in terms of being able to play both for a while, was fortunate.

I miss training for football and I miss playing matches.

Growing up, I did a lot of work that was technically based. So, I sort of feel that, no matter where you're playing, the basics are still the basics. Then it's just about adjusting on the day.

Put yourself into every situation in training and against every style of bowling, and do that for hours and hours and hours. Then when you get to a match, it's almost instinctive the way you play because you've done it so often in training.

If you're going to do something, you should go all in and be absorbed in the process and want to do well and be OK with being really consumed by it. But at the same time, I guess the balance there lies in not letting the result define who you are as a person and your self-worth.

There's two extremes in male sport: there's complete and total worship of them, or complete and utter contempt. Those extremes create huge problems at either end. And it creates distance, too, and leads them into a bubble.

I'm quite different to my brother. As kids, I was his shadow - I always wanted to do things with him. I'm sure I cramped his style a little.

It's no secret that I'm a fan of hitting a lot of balls.

Having success in World Cups is some of the biggest career highlights that I've had, but more generally speaking, the biggest highlight is just the development of the sport and being involved in this period of women's cricket, but also in women's sport in general in Australia, where it's been a bit of a watershed moment.

I love being put into situations which are competitive and tough and challenging.

I'm not a particularly extroverted person.

I know what sport has given to me in my life, what opportunities I've had and the lessons I've learned about myself and about life.

I think sport can play a really positive role in young girls' lives and be great to see as many of them playing sport as possible.

For me it was always about enjoying what I was doing and trying to get better, playing more and more sport.

I play sport all the time.

I'm pretty shy. I'm so bad at public speaking. I can answer questions in front of a crowd, that seems to be fine, but standing up there by myself and delivering some kind of speech, I'm the worst. I hate it.

When I'm away from sport and not doing something I have much self-belief in, I can lack self-confidence at times.

If I have to do a speech, if there's no way I can get out of it, or if it's something I really should do, I won't sleep the night before. I'll feel ill the entire day leading up to it. I won't be able to eat if it's after a dinner, which makes things even worse.

No one is perfect, and no one should be made to feel like they have to be perfect. It's nice that we all have unique qualities that make us different as athletes and humans. That's why it's so important to surround yourself with people who truly care about you.

For me looking at the success of some of the women's football World Cups, the crowds they've drawn, the spectacle it has created and the event that it's been I think it's really great cricket is having a go at that as well.

I'd grown up knowing all about Don Bradman and visited his museum in Bowral quite a few times and absolutely loved the place and then to go back there and receive my baggy green and play my first Test match there at the oval, and obviously my parents were there and a lot of family and friends, it was really cool.

More girls are taking up sport and realising it's a legitimate option for them to forge a career.

We've still got some of our best friends living in Canberra and I still do some training with one of the strength and conditioning coaches at the Brumbies.