'Never enough': Alyssa Healy opens up on battle against sexism
Alyssa Healy may be seen as one of Australia's greatest cricketers, but she wasn't always full of self-confidence that helped her rise to the top.
Healy cemented her status as a national great after playing the defining innings in Australia's T20 World Cup win in 2020 in front of 86,000 fans at the MCG.
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The wicket-keeper batter has three centuries at ODI level and has taken 62 catches behind the stumps.
Her destructive batting in T20 cricket has seen her average 24.00 with a strike rate of 129.69.
But speaking to Yahoo Sport Australia for the Mind Games Series, Healy revealed she was subjected to sexism in cricket during her school days.
And one such incident stuck in her mind.
"There were people that had issues with it," Healy said, referencing her time at school.
"I distinctly remember my grandma was down looking after me, there was a knock on our door at 6am.
"I opened the door and a reporter was holding up a newspaper.
"On the newspaper was a headline of Osama Bin Laden and right next to it was a photo of me in my Barker uniform.
"Someone had written in a letter saying it was a disgrace that there was a girl in the team, and it was a boy's competition."
Healy thanked her parents for shielding her away from some of the sexism directed towards her as she rose through the ranks in a traditionally male-dominated sport.
And Healy addressed the stigma women face in sport from a young age, and all the way to the elite level, which can be detrimental to self-confidence.
"The biggest challenge we face in sport is we are always being compared to men, in whatever sport that might be, and it us such an unfair comparison," she said.
Alyssa Healy's early career struggles
While Healy is one of the game's biggest stars, she didn't always have that self-belief as a cricketer.
Early on during her career, Healy struggled to nail down a position in the international team.
She puts this down to a lack of self-belief, which stemmed from outside noise and comparisons every time she came to the crease.
"I often link it back to being treated as never good enough all the time, I think that naturally leads to a lower self-confidence," she added.
"Those little extra challenges, which are like death by a thousand cuts every single day, when we show up to our job.
"Which is like, we are not quite good enough, we need to be better, we need to be like the men.
"I think that is a real challenge we face every day and I applaud every single female athlete who gets up out of bed everyday and wants to break down those glass ceilings.
"Knowing that whatever we do, is never quite good enough."
Healy turned around her form in ODI and T20 cricket to become one of the most devastating strikers in the world.
After averaging 17.44 in her first 80 T20 matches, Healy moved to opener and found her confidence to average 39 with a strike rate of 149.
Her ODI career also took a turn for the better and she has averaged 55 since 2017.
Healy said the marquee of an elite cricketer is a strong mental attitude, which has helped turn around her confidence struggles.
"When my mind game is set in, all I try and do is remind myself is how a 12-year-old Alyssa Healy would have walked onto the field and played," Healy added.
"She would have played with a big smile on her face, enjoyment levels through the roof, and she would have played with this natural flair, and I think that is all I have to remind myself when things are getting tough."
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