Exclusive: Belinda Keay Reflects On The 2021 Women In Sport Summit

The Ministry of Sport Women in Sport Summit 2021 took place on Friday, June 25 at USC Stadium, delivered in partnership with Sunshine Coast Council and Tourism and Events Queensland.

Cricket Australia operations director for Big Bash Leagues, Belinda Keay, spoke at the Ministry of Sport Women in Sport Summit 2021.

Reflecting on the Summit, Keay said she was excited to meet people face to face after a gruelling 18 months for everyone due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s been great to be in the room with so many influential women,” Keay told Ministry of Sport.

“I think it’s been a really long time since we’ve all been able to come together and actually have that human connection and share that experience.

“It’s been quite a difficult 18 months for everybody so to come out the other side and to talk about the real opportunities over the next couple of years, it’s really exciting,” she said.

At the Summit, Keay discussed how the Big Bash Leagues persisted throughout the pandemic to deliver all of their content.

“We showed what was possible when you do take it seriously and you do invest,” Keay said.

“We achieved all our outcomes in terms of keeping our players safe, making sure that their mental wellbeing was being looked after and we delivered all of our content.

“We achieved all the outcomes that we wanted it to achieve.

“Are there learnings?

“Absolutely.

“We’ve never done it before but we’re really proud of what we achieved,” she said, discussing the village-style structure of the Women’s Big Bash League season.

Keay also told Ministry of Sport many within the industry did not go for the perceived easy choice of cutting funding to women’s sports and that it was worth investing in.

“In fact, in some cases, [the Big Bash Leagues] invested more in our women’s program than we did our men, in terms of hubs and bio security,” Keay said.

“I think the key takeaway is you need to get your head out of those gender biases and to advocate that it does need to be equal regardless of gender,” she said.

Over the coming weeks, Ministry of Sport will be releasing video footage from the Women in Sport Summit 2021, including Belinda Keay’s speech regarding the operations of the Big Bash Leagues, along with reflections from each speaker on the Summit.