Why Molineux’s “clinical” Aussie triumph wasn’t on free-to-air TV

Sophie Molineux's captaincy was on show for all to see as the Australian women's side dominated the T20 World Cup in England.

The Age's Chief Cricket writer Dan Brettig joined Adam White to discuss the comprehensive victory over the English in the Final at Lord's on the weekend.

Captaining the Australian squad to their seventh T20 World Cup title, bowling all-rounder Molineux has been one to watch since her breakout onto the Victorian team.

Leading the Aussies to a seven-wicket triumph, Brettig praised the efforts of 28-year-old Molineux.

“It is a real feather in the cap for Sophie Molineux, Shelley Nitschke, the Australian selection panel, and those who identified Sophie as a leader years ago,” Brettig said on SEN’s Whitey’s World.

“She took up captaincy at the Renegades, and even before that she was doing mentoring work with Belinda Clark on leadership, so there is a long tail there ahead of her becoming captain.”

“There’s a lot of competition in the Australian team and the question of who should be in the best 11, if that should be her when she was having trouble getting on the park with injuries.”

“(After the win), it was a pretty resounding endorsement of the decision to go with her.

“A huge part of the reason she’s working so well as captain is that she has really great balance in terms of her temperament, her care for the people around the team, and the tactical side that she’s built up over time. “

“The word clinical is used to describe her play quite a lot, and it really was a clinic – they left England shaking their heads.“

Brettig continued to commend the Aussie line-up, singling out the 64-run tallier Beth Mooney.

“Beth Mooney always seems to know, as a second nature, what kind of innings the moment requires. So, it was pretty fitting that she was not only player of the match but player of the tournament,” Brettig added.

“She really was faultless there, and a constant presence on the shoulder of the English batters. Combine that with her ability to really modulate her innings perfectly for any situation and have a range of gears - we saw Nat Sciver struggle a bit with that for England, trying to figure out what would be a good score to make and how aggressively to push things.

“In the Women’s Hundred auction, she got pretty much top dollar to play for the Trent Rockets. She got that record breaking number because she’s two players – at least, if not three.

“One of the things that has been opened up by Alyssa Healy’s retirement is that Beth Mooney has been up to the stumps – and that was another key facet of keeping England quiet in the first innings of the game."

Responding to White’s frustrations on the “missed opportunity” to having the women’s sporting event on Amazon Prime rather than on free-to-air tv, Brettig discussed the complexity of broadcasting rights.

“It is tricky in terms of who makes the decision on where rights go, it is an International Cricket Council commercial decision - clearly Amazon Prime put up the biggest rights fee. The current deal runs through to the end of next year, including the Men’s World Cup in South Africa in October and November 2027," Brettig said.

“It’s a really difficult one for Australian cricket. Its showing where tension lies in terms of getting the biggest rights fee and getting the biggest reach for the game.

“At this time of year with the World Cup and Wimbledon, and bunch of other things going on plus the usual footy codes, it is a really war for space and for eyeballs.

"It will be really interesting to see what happens with the next deal for 2028 with the next T20 World Cup on the horizon, which will be played in Australia and New Zealand. I don’t think anyone in Australian cricket is going to want to see that tournament hidden away in any sense.

"There are definitely some conversations that need to be had at a few levels, including how much engagement and influence Cricket Australia needs to have at the ICC level to see where the rights go next."

Australia's next opportunity to shine will be in October, when they are set to host Bangladesh for a three-match ODI series.