Ellyse Alexandra Perry is an Australian international cricketer and former soccer player, widely regarded as one of the greatest female all-rounders in the history of the sport.
Born on 3 November 1990 in Wahroonga, Sydney, New South Wales, she grew up in the Hornsby Ku-ring-gai area, attending Beecroft Public School and later Pymble Ladies’ College, where she served as sports, athletics and cricket captain.
Perry debuted for both the Australian national cricket team and the Matildas soccer side at the age of 16, becoming the youngest Australian to play international cricket and the first person to appear in both an ICC Cricket World Cup and a FIFA World Cup.
A right-handed batter and right-arm fast-medium bowler, she has spent nearly two decades as a cornerstone of Australia’s women’s cricket team, combining elite batting technique with sharp bowling and athletic fielding.
Siblings
Ellyse has one sibling, an older brother named Damien Perry, who is three years her senior.
The two shared a close and competitive childhood in Sydney, filled with backyard cricket, bike riding, tree climbing and other outdoor adventures.
Damien played a pivotal role in sparking her interest in cricket: their father Mark taught him how to bowl one evening in the family kitchen, and young Ellyse immediately wanted to learn the same skill.
She would follow her brother around, joining him for long sessions of batting and bowling after school.
Career
Perry’s international cricket career began in spectacular fashion.
She made her One-Day International debut against New Zealand on 22 July 2007 at just 16 years and eight months of age, becoming Australia’s youngest-ever international cricketer.
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Her Test debut followed in February 2008 against England, and she quickly established herself as a genuine all-rounder across all three formats.
Parallel to her early cricket success she also represented the Matildas, earning 18 caps and scoring three goals, including a memorable strike against Sweden at the 2011 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
From around 2014 she focused solely on cricket and went on to become a mainstay of Australia’s dominant teams.
Domestically she has played for New South Wales, Victoria, the Sydney Sixers in the Women’s Big Bash League, and franchises including Loughborough Lightning, Supernovas, Birmingham Phoenix, Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Women’s Premier League and others.
Over her career she has amassed significant run and wicket tallies, including becoming the first player to reach the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in T20 Internationals, recording the highest Test score by an Australian woman (an unbeaten 213), and claiming more than 150 ODI wickets.
She has featured in every Women’s T20 World Cup since the inaugural event in 2009 and remains an active senior player into the mid-2020s.
Accolades
Perry’s trophy cabinet reflects sustained excellence at the highest level.
She has been part of nine ICC World Cup-winning Australian sides: two Women’s Cricket World Cups (2013 and 2022) and seven Women’s T20 World Cups (2010, 2012, 2014, 2018, 2020, 2023 and 2026), making her the most decorated player in ICC history by total senior titles.
She also contributed to Australia’s Commonwealth Games gold medal in 2022.
Individually she has won the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Award for ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year on multiple occasions (including 2017 and 2019), the Belinda Clark Award three times (2016, 2018 and 2020), and in 2020 was named ICC Female Cricketer of the Decade as well as the Women’s ODI and T20I Cricketer of the Decade.
Additional honours include Wisden recognition as one of the Five Cricketers of the Decade for 2010–19, multiple Women’s Ashes Player of the Series awards, Player of the Final at the 2010 T20 World Cup, and various domestic season awards with the Sydney Sixers and New South Wales.
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