"I was playing backyard cricket with my son and he did a little skip and hop as he came into bowl and he said he was Megan Schutt. For me, that's magic"
Tuesday 24 March 2020 13:55, UK
Australia Women coach Matthew Mott believes his T20 World Cup-winning side have "become heroes for a whole new audience".
The Southern Stars thumped India by 95 runs in front of 86,174 people at the MCG earlier this month to win the tournament for the fifth time, before celebrating with Katy Perry, who performed either side of the final.
Mott says youngsters have been inspired by his team's victory - including his own son.
"I think the legacy will live on," Mott told reporters on Tuesday. "Young boys and girls will be inspired. I've already had so much feedback.
"I was playing backyard cricket with my son and he did a little skip and hop as he came into bowl and he said he was Schutter (Australia Women bowler Megan Schutt). For me, that's magic.
"It gave me goosebumps at the time and shows we're not just inspiring young girls, we're inspiring young boys as well. The next generation will be so much better for the experience we went through.
"I think the images and the way we played, the adversity we came up against... the players have become heroes for a whole new audience and it's a male audience as well as female.
"The images of the players dancing with Katy Perry will last in the memories of anyone who watched the event for many years to come."
Australia would have been knocked out in the semi-finals had their clash with South Africa been washed out but the rain relented for long enough for the hosts to win a shortened game.
"We were incredibly lucky getting through the semi-final with the weather the way it was," added Mott. "Looking back, we were three or four days away from missing (the final).
"It would have been incredibly disappointing to miss out with the amount of work that went in behind the scenes to basically fill the MCG, the game it turned out to be and the celebration of women's cricket.
"We feel very fortunate as it could have been so different if it was a week later [with coronavirus impacting sport]. Hopefully for a lot of people, it's a lasting memory of live sport for a little while."
