Subjects: Australian Womens Cricket Team
E&OE..................
Well thank you very much Elaine. Belinda Clark, Quentin Bryce, Cheryl Kernot, John Boultbee, John Mulcahy, all the other members of the Australian Women's Cricket Team and squad, ladies and gentlemen. Janette and I are really very happy to be at this very special dinner. It's always nice to have an occasion which appropriately honours the importance of an overseas sporting excursion. And despite the recent notoriety of Stadium Australian in Sydney, it remains the case that this dinner is taking place in what is without doubt the most prestigious and hallowed sporting arena in Australia. And to have a gathering at the Melbourne Cricket Ground is I think something very special.
But it does of course honour a very special team. A team that has won four World Cups in cricket, a team which represents at the pinnacle a growing number of Australian girls and women participating in a sport which now claims the allegiance of about 37,000 participants throughout Australian. One of the interesting things about sport in our country, particularly against the background of the great euphoria of the Olympic Games is that euphoric though we were about the Games and all they represented, it remains the case that 70% of Australians who participate in sport play non Olympic sports. And of course cricket in its various manifestations - men's cricket, indoor cricket, women's cricket - when you add them all together it is still a sport that in those different forms claims the affections of so many.
I am, as nominated by Mark Taylor, the ultimate cricket tragic. I plead guilty to that. I regard it as a great term of endearment. One of the great things about sport is that it transcends so many boundaries in Australia. The great thrill of being an Australian in a sporting event where your team is there and you're barracking for it is something very special and you forget about other things, no matter what the sport was. Like a lot of rugby followers I stayed up till quarter-to-four the other morning to watch the Wallabies.
I've got to say that the most thrilling moment for Janette and I at the Olympic Games has got to be that wonderful victory by the women's water polo team. An absolutely astonishing example of the determination of a group of Australian women dedicated to their sport. And the Australian women's cricket team falls into the same category. When you look at the team sports one has to acknowledge on any test that the contribution of Australian women in team sports - be it in cricket, be it in water polo, be it in hockey, be it in netball - has been absolutely remarkable. And the Australian women's cricket team which has claimed four of the World Cups that have been staged since it began in 1973 has really brought an enormous amount of credit to the sport and an enormous amount of credit to the participants.
But tonight is also an occasion to thank the people in the background, to thank the coaches, to thank very particularly the sponsor. Sponsorship is so important to the future of sport and that breakthrough point so often for sport is when you get that sponsor who's prepared to stick with you. And I want to thank the Commonwealth Bank and all the others that have been so generous in their support for Australian women's cricket. It's really been very very important. But I also want to thank the mums and the dads, and the girlfriends and boyfriends and other supporters because all of our sport ultimately starts in the local park, the local swimming pool, the local field and it needs the support of people who are prepared to give their time without any kind of reward other than the satisfaction of seeing their sport enjoyed and played by so many people and I think it's very very important that that grassroots element of Australian sport and not least your own game is acknowledged.
I do particularly as well as generally congratulating the 14 members of the squad, I do want to pay particular tribute to Julie Hayes and Louise Broadfoot who are the two new caps in the team on this occasion. And to you Belinda particularly the contribution that you have made and you've now travelled that path from player to administrator and to be a successful player and to be able to turn that talent and passion for the game into administration is a very important thing. And to you and Karen Rolton, your vice-captain, and to your coach John Harmer and your manager Janine Stainer, I wish you a great deal of good fortune. I will follow very keenly, not only your first encounter, but there's always special edge about a sporting contest between Australia and New Zealand. I'll follow that encounter with enormous interest. And there'll be a lot of Australian sportsmen and women barracking for you and very enthusiastically wishing you on.
I think you've brought tremendous credit to your sport and you've been marvellous ambassadors for your country. And it fills me as Prime Minister with tremendous pride to see the wonderful ambassadorial role of our sportsmen and women whatever the sport is. By and large they do it with great style, they do it with a great sense of dedication and a great sense of responsibility, but also as befits Australians a great sense of fun and as well as being competitive a willingness to enjoy yourselves.
So I hope you have a wonderful series. I hope you win, I hope you get that rapturous welcome at the Boxing Day Test here at the MCG because you'll be delighting so many Australian cricket fans both men and women, and you'll be doing great things for a sport that is growing in leaps and bounds. I wish you all well and I hope you win the cup and you'll have a lot of enthusiastic support from here in Australia. Thank you. [Ends]