Sport
8 May, 2026
Cath McLeod recognised for women’s cricket service spanning over six decades
It’s hard to find someone who’s contributed more to the growth of Victorian women’s cricket than Maryborough local Cath McLeod.
A passion that began as a young teenager listening to a radio broadcast of Australia battling for the Ashes in England with her family has fuelled over six decades of continuous service as a player, coach, administrator and historian.
McLeod’s unwavering dedication and advocacy were officially recognised at Cricket Victoria’s Women’s Community Cricket Competition Awards Night last Friday, receiving the prestigious Pioneers Award for outstanding service to women’s cricket.
“It makes you very honoured and proud to think all the stuff you went through, all those meetings you went to, have been recognised,” McLeod said.
“It’s very emotional actually to think people and your peers think you’ve done a few things that are worth it.”
It was almost poetic for McLeod to win the award, as she suggested the Pioneer Victorian Women’s Cricket Association, an advocacy and networking group she was president of for 20 years, start the award back in 2011.
That only begins to scratch the surface of McLeod’s impact, which began during the 1960-61 season as a new 14-year-old player at the Essendon Ladies Cricket Club.
McLeod had a distinguished playing career, representing Victoria in the under 21s for four years and selected to play for the Victorian Second XI against New Zealand.
That success wasn’t guaranteed, especially when McLeod’s Essendon were on the verge of disbanding with only three active players.
As the eldest of the remaining members at just 16, McLeod took decisive action to try and save the club.
“All the players were leaving. I was left with myself and two others. At a meeting, two players that were leaving said, we’re going to this club and you’re on your own. We think we should close the club,” she said.
“I just loved being down there with the people I played with and I didn’t want it to stop.
“I went home and told my dad, I cried at the door and I said, ‘dad, they’re going to close the club,’ and he said, go to bed and we’ll talk about it in the morning. He then gave me a really good plan for what we had to do.
“As we went along, my sisters had to join. Anybody we knew had to join so we could keep the club going.
“That’s how I got into the cricket association because I had to go to them and say, we want to keep going. What do we have to do?”
Alongside her various roles in helping Essendon field two teams the year after they faced extinction, McLeod was also the club’s delegate to the Victorian Women’s Cricket Association (VWCA), a role McLeod said opened her eyes to the state of women’s cricket.
“I go to the meeting and I’m thinking that it’s this great big association and there were three grades of six teams for women’s cricket across Victoria,” she said.
“One of the first questions I asked was ‘where’s our MCG?’ What a stupid thing to ask because there was nothing for women in those days.”
Despite still being a teenager, McLeod was elected to the VWCA committee, quickly becoming a central figure in the sport’s development.
Over the next 30 years, McLeod oversaw the association’s growth from 18 teams to over 100 during stints as president, vice president and secretary.
Alongside her contributions to major reforms around facilities, sponsorships and umpiring, McLeod also supported interstate and international events, including the 1984-85 Australia-England Test Series.
That series culminated in Australia winning the deciding fifth test at Queen Elizabeth Oval in Bendigo.
McLeod also founded the Maribyrnong Women’s Cricket Club in 1972, which went on to amalgamate with McLeod’s former team Essendon nine years later.
The combined Essendon Maribyrnong Park Ladies Cricket Club is recognised as the oldest women’s cricket club in the world, a fact McLeod is extremely proud of.
“When I think of that, I realise that was pretty monumental,” she said.
“It showed me how much people at 16 can do if they are encouraged to do it. I was a shy kid. I hardly talked to anyone, so for me to have to go and do all those things at that age was pretty amazing.”
While she still has involvement in cricket, McLeod said she has settled well into her retirement in Maryborough, where she is involved in several local clubs, including Maryborough Probus and the Maryborough VRI Croquet Club.
Reflecting on her over six decades of service to the sport, McLeod said she’s had a blessed cricket journey.
“I loved meeting all the people. I was very fortunate I played in a very good time of cricket,” she said.
“A lot of those wonderful women are gone now, but our new generation that I saw on Friday night are very enthusiastic and they’re winning awards and their fathers are there with them at the presentation. It’s wonderful.”