Cricket ACT officials find silver lining despite Australian Twenty20 washout at Manuka Oval

The Twenty20 clash against Pakistan at Manuka Oval was washed out without a ball bowled, a disappointing end to the day for what was a healthy crowd.

The match came amid a bumper summer for cricket in Canberra that kicked off way back in October with the Australian men's team playing England in two T20 contests.

Since then, the Sydney Thunder have played WBBL and BBL fixtures at Manuka Oval and the Prime Minister's XI featured in a pink ball clash against the West Indies.

Cricket ACT have made a direct push to host more elite content in Canberra in recent summers, with the benefits of such matches flowing to all levels of the sport.

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Thornton was disappointed Sunday's game was abandoned, however she was able to find positives amid the gloom.

"In the women's space, off the back of the 2020 World Cup, we've had year-on-year growth of over 200 per cent," Thornton said.

"It's a really strong metric and shows the importance of bringing elite content to town and for our communities to be able to see that and witness that first hand. There is a direct correlation with that and people joining and staying in our game.

"It's something we'll continue to work with the ACT government to ensure we continue to bring elite content to town."

Adding to the disappointment for Canberra cricket fans was the fact Manuka Oval was originally slated to host two women's fixtures this summer.

An abandoned men's one-day series against South Africa saw the schedule rejigged, with one of the matches moved to Hobart.

As it turned out, the rain arrived to ruin the second of the two fixtures and while those in attendance will receive a refund from Cricket Australia, that is small solace for spectators hoping to see the best women's team in the world on home soil.

"It's a shame it's been called off but it's one of the things we can't control, the weather," Thornton said. "We've been pretty lucky with all the content we've had in January, but unfortunately not the case today.

"COVID's taught us a lot in this space that we need to play what's in front of us. There was a scheduling change, but we were fortunate to have games early in the season, which we haven't before."

Sunday's match was Australia's last before they fly to South Africa for the upcoming Twenty20 World Cup.

The side enters the tournament as defending champions, having won the trophy in front of 86,174 fans at the MCG in 2020.

Australia will play two practice games against India and Ireland before kicking off their campaign against New Zealand on February 12.

While India and England have expanded their women's programs in recent years, Australia remain the benchmark in international cricket and the pressure is on to perform in South Africa.

"We're very aware there's a lot of good teams out there who are chasing the same amount of success that we are, so we certainly aren't complacent in any way," skipper Meg Lanning said. "We have high expectations on ourselves. We're really good at blocking out the outside noise and what people think should happen and their assumptions. We try and focus on what we can control.

"We're a very driven, very competitive group. That naturally lends itself to big tournaments like this where you need to be at your best. It's an exciting chance to go over there with some new faces in our team.

"That's really important, that's been a great part of our team, the young players coming in and being able to perform their roles straight away, which keeps everyone fresh and on their toes."

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