As the third instalment of the Women's Big Bash looms, the success of the competition is starting to have an impact on participation in the sport.
The number of Sixers and Thunder girls' cricket teams in New South Wales has grown substantially in the past two years.
After a surge from 72 teams in 2015-16 to 162 in 2016-17, this year close to 300 teams are expected to play the coming summer with leagues starting up across regional NSW.
The eight-a-side, T20 format cricket for girls aged 10 through to 16 has helped streamline the pathway from five years old through to the elite.
Australian wicketkeeper Alyssa Healy said it was an exciting time for the sport.
"I think only one or two of the stages were available when I was playing cricket as a little girl, so to see five or six stages now is quite impressive," she said.
"When I was growing up there wasn't an opportunity for girls-only cricket, I played all my junior cricket with the boys so it's great that girls from as young as six can try cricket."
The country's elite female cricketers were the big winners in last week's landmark pay deal — Australia's best players will now take home more than $200,000 a year.
For some young athletes at today's cricket clinic in the inner suburbs of Sydney, it is a very exciting prospect.
"It's a dream come true, it's so exciting to be able to think that when I'm older I could have an actual living playing for Australia," NSW Academy player Nell Bryson-Smith said.
Nell and her sister Grace have dreams of one day pulling on the green and gold.
"It would be a dream come true," Nell said.
Sunny Bansal's daughter Sabine is just five, but already is captivated by cricket.
"She loves it," he said.
"It's a great sport, obviously boys and males have been playing for a long time but it's great women are getting into it and are doing it very well."
The Growing Cricket for Girls funding, run through Cricket Australia, has seen a growth of 20 per cent in successfully funded applications (from 328 to 398) and a 288 per cent growth in funded applications from schools (17 to 66).
