What Ellyse Perry knows about money

This article is from the first issue of CommBank's magazine, Brighter.

Ellyse Perry is famous for firsts. At 16, she became the youngest ever cricketer to represent Australia. A prodigy and an all-rounder, she went on to become the only Australian athlete to score both a century in an Ashes series and a goal at a soccer World Cup. And now she’s the first to feature in Brighter’s column on money.

Would you call yourself a good saver or are you better at spending?

I’m actually quite a good saver – it’s my personality. Growing up, any spare change I collected, whether it was pocket money or money from birthday or Christmas presents, went straight into my account. I’ve never been a big spender. Some would call me boring!

If you won a million dollars is there anything surprising you’d do with it?

I’d definitely buy my mum a new car. She’s reluctant to get a new one because she’s so attached to the prehistoric Subaru that she drives around in.

What about something for yourself?

I’d love to own a property in the country at some point... somewhere not too big and not too far from the ocean and maybe with a couple of horses. It would be a place I could escape to. That’s my pipedream.

You often refer to yourself as a coffee nut and you even co-owned a couple of cafes. What did you learn from that experience?

I’m no longer involved in the cafés but running a small business was an eye-opening experience, understanding just how difficult it is. The pressures are so much harder than going out and playing cricket. I’ve always had a really strong interest in coffee. Travelling around the world a lot, the girls and I like finding cool coffee shops wherever we are. It’s a great way to immerse yourself in the local vibe.

How did the 2017 pay deal with Cricket Australia change things for you as a sportswoman?

There’s been steady progress around the professionalism of the women’s game and since then I’ve never looked back. As an athlete you have a finite career as far as your body is concerned so it’s good to be spending less time on promotional work and more time playing a game I really love – and hopefully getting better at it.

“Growing up, any spare change I collected would go straight into my account. I’ve never really been a big spender.”

With that said, there’s a big disparity between men’s and women’s pay at an elite level. How do you feel about that?

More improvements in parity will flow through [like April’s momentous new pay deal that makes cricketers the highest-paid female athletes in Australian team sports] but there are a lot of good opportunities out there. Generally speaking, female sport has a really positive narrative around it at the moment and I think that’s attractive to the public. That, in turn, attracts sponsors. 

Interview by Barry Divola. Photography by Steven Chee.

Read more articles from Brighter magazine.