Senior members of Australia's "triumphant women's World T20 team" believe that it is "only a matter of time before they are embraced as fulltime professionals," according to the AAP. Cricket Australia last year updated its women's "contracting system, increasing player retainers and payments." All the Southern Stars, however, "still have to juggle cricket with either work or study." Southern Stars captain Meg Lanning and her deputy, Alex Blackwell, both "believe it won’t be too long before players at their level will be fulltime professionals." Lanning: "I hope so, I don’t think it’s too far away. Obviously if we're successful that's certainly going to help, but at the minute we're very happy with the level of support we get, and I'm sure that in the future it will only increase" (AAP, 4/10). In Melbourne, Andrew Wu reported CA's decision to make the Southern Stars the "highest-paid female sporting team in the country has been hailed as a key factor in the team's third consecutive international Twenty20 world title." Coach Cathryn Fitzpatrick, Lanning and Blackwell all believe that last year's pay increase "played a big part in lifting the standard of women's cricket in Australia." For Fitzpatrick, it means "better access to hone their skills." For the players, "it means they can take time off work or study to concentrate on their game" (THE AGE, 4/9).
