Ellyse Perry, Australia grapple with price of professionalism

A few minutes after claiming her third Belinda Clark Medal at the Australian Cricket Awards, amid enormous expectations that as products of the world's only fully professional women's cricket program the Australian team would romp to the final of the imminent Twenty20 World Cup, Ellyse Perry struck a somewhat surprising note.

Professionalism and its unrelenting schedule was something that, Perry said, the Australians were still in the process of getting used to. After a year that featured an away Ashes series, home internationals at the outset of summer, the enormous WBBL schedule, the WNCL and then a triangular series before the World Cup proper, these were the words of a cricketer who, for all her mental and physical skills, knew that there were some tired and fatigued bodies and minds in the squad. They were starting a tournament but also ending a season.

"We've played a lot of cricket over the last 12 months, more so than we ever have, and it's something that the boys have dealt with for a long, long period of time but it's something we're still coming to grips with and trying to understand," Perry had said. "Initially when we came back together it's almost been a little bit rusty."

Move forward a few weeks, and that aforementioned triumphalism has been replaced by far more cautious optimism and no little anxiety about a similar predicament for both Perry and Australia. Having battled shoulder soreness, Perry is no certainty to play in Monday's virtual elimination final against New Zealand at Junction Oval due to a hip complaint. As for the team captained by Meg Lanning, the tournament has thrown up more curve balls than a Greg Maddux shutout to leave them scrambling to progress.

"She's got a sore hip, she won't train today, but we'll give her every chance to play tomorrow and won't be able to make a call on that until tomorrow when she's able to do something and see how she goes," Lanning said of Perry. "It's just to give her the best chance to play tomorrow, I'm sure the medical staff have got that all worked out, she'll have the day off today and give herself the best chance and then we'll make a call tomorrow.

"She's the ultimate professional, she's doing everything she can to get herself up, so if anyone is able to do it I'm sure she is. It would change the dynamic of the team obviously when you lose a world class player like that, but I said at the start of the tournament that we had 15 players here who I thought could play a roll at any point, and that hasn't changed. So if Ellyse is unable to play, we feel like we've got people who can come in and perform the role and still do really well.

"She's shown in the past that she's extremely resilient and able to play through things, so if anyone is able to do it, it's Ellyse, and we'll give her the best chance possible and leave it as late as we can and then go from there."

In addition to Perry's growing sensation of wear and tear, Sophie Molineux has been unable to shake off a stubborn corked thigh. Tayla Vlaeminck, who took home silverware as the game's best emerging player on the same night Perry wore the Clark medal, was a last-gasp withdrawal due to a foot fracture. All this has meant that pace and bounce, the most unique weapon Australia would have possessed in the field, has been greatly reduced, placing more pressure on the likes of Megan Schutt, Jess Jonassen, the teenager Annabel Sutherland and the late inclusion for Vlaeminck, Molly Strano.

"When you take your two fastest bowlers out you're going to have to slightly change the way you go about it, but we feel like we do have those plan Bs and Cs and players who can come in and play a role," Lanning said. "Depending on what happens tomorrow it will be a slightly different approach. In World Cups you do need to be able to adapt and take things on that are thrown at you and this is not something we wanted to happen but we're just going to have to adjust."

As a batting side, Australia's emphasis on batting order flexibility married to role clarity has been set back by conditions that might at times have favoured a more traditional approach, not least in having Lanning at the helm from No. 3 as not only the captain but the best all-round bat in the XI. Near enough to panic set in against India at the Sydney Showgrounds, and the match against Sri Lanka almost went the same way at the WACA, only for Lanning and Rachael Haynes to get the hosts home with a generous helping of fortune in the shape of dropped catches.

Given the adjustments Perry spoke about, and the madcap nature of a tournament squeezing 23 games into essentially two weeks - something for the BBL's schedulers to consider, perhaps - a little more time to stop and reflect before a better display against Bangladesh has helped Lanning's side, as did a full day off on Saturday before training ahead of Monday. Given how long Australia have been waiting expectantly for this tournament to come around, a bit of time not thinking about the cup and its implications can only aid in clearing a few heads.

"Being in the middle of it is different to thinking about it leading into a big tournament," Lanning said. "I think we had a couple of really good days between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, chatted through what's worked and what hadn't worked and what we could do a bit better. I've really sensed a real calmness about the group in the last few days and a real want to just follow the process and get into the game and I feel like we're as well placed as we could be heading into this game.

"The crowds we've played in front of have been as big as we've ever played, there's a lot of coverage and interest and people wanting to do well. That's what we've always asked for, and now it's here and we're in the middle of it, which is great. We're coming into an extremely big game and we want to be part of that. It's taken a little bit of an adjustment period, just getting used to it, but I think the group's really loved it and looking forward to what the next day or so can hold."

Perry, famously, has a history of resilience and pushing through pain, not least her unforgettable spell in the 2013 World Cup final in Mumbai, where she was initially unable to bowl on an injured ankle but regathered herself to fire down the spell that ensured Australia's victory in Lisa Sthalekar's final game. And with so much desire to see an Australian success in this tournament with all that it would say for the professionalisation of the game and a drive to build female participation in cricket, Perry's other words on the medal night also deserve recounting.

"The opportunities are massive," she had said. "There's a real appetite within the group to continue to grow the women's game, on Australian shores but also abroad, so this women's World Cup is the first of those incredible opportunities and knowing that there's a goal to fill the MCG for the final the team wants to be there, very much so, and that's the challenge in front of us. But going further forward it's about continuing to develop things and to me the WBBL is the showpiece of women's cricket in this country.

"I'd love to see it get to the point down the track that it's elite, it supports itself, so the revenue we generate through ticket sales and broadcast deals and those kinds of things means its really standing on its own feet. That in my mind is really the Mecca of women's cricket. There's so much to work on, there's plenty of opportunity there and importantly all the girls see that and really want to be a part of contributing to that, and whether that happens in the generation I play in or generations to come, it doesn't really matter because I've contributed at some point or another."

How much these high ideals can help Perry ignore her troublesome hip remains to be seen, but it is worth noting that for all their many advantages over other nations, Australia's women are still grappling with the enormous leaps that have been made within the space of their generation. To know that is to realise a hat-trick of wins to lift the cup from here would be all the more meritorious.