Christina Matthews inducted into Australian Cricket Hall of Fame

Ahead of the only Test of the Women’s Ashes 2024-25 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground from January 30, former Australia wicketkeeper-batter Christina Matthews was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame. It is worth noting that Christina, who was also the vice-captain of Australia, worked as a cricket administrator for a long time as well.

Speaking of Christina’s contributions to cricket, she has played most Tests for the country as the counts stands at 20. This also makes her sixth overall in the world to do so. As a wicketkeeper, she has 58 dismissals to her name, the most in women's Test history. Her career spanned from 1984 to 1995, and she played 47 ODIs while being an integral part of Australia’s 1988 World Cup victory at the MCG.

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"Thank you to all my teammates who have been part of making this happen, those coaches who helped me enormously. And I also want to acknowledge my partner and family who are here today to celebrate this with me and also my mum and dad are no longer with us, but you can't achieve any of these things without the start they give you. I had a choice where it could be presented and I didn't hesitate to choose this, such a historic occasion,” said Christina as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.

"And being from Melbourne myself, the MCG looms large as kind of the iconic ground in the world. So to be part of this and to be recognized in such a great environment is just incredible. I did play World Cup final here, which we won in 1988 and I think I spent the whole day just looking around. There'll be plenty more people here today than there was then. But to get to play on this ground was an unbelievable dream,” she added.

On Christina’s administrator role, she headed Australia women's selection panel from 2007 to 2011. She was later appointed Chief Executive Officer of Western Australia Cricket in 2012, a role she continued contributing to for 12 years. Right after she looked over CEO’s position in WA Cricket, she was elected as first female president of the Australian Cricketers Association (ACA) in December 2024.