High-profile South African signing Dane van Niekerk is calling Australia a world leader in the promotion of women's cricket - she's already living her dream.
She travels the world playing cricket professionally, and, next month, the South African leg-spinner will tick off another life goal: walking out at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
She says she is hoping to become a role model for young female cricketers coming up through the South African cricket academy, the SSR.
"Well, I just want to leave a mark. I just want somebody in the SSR to come up and look up to me and say, 'You know what? That's what I want to do. That's how I want to be one day.' I don't want people to come into the side and say we didn't leave a legacy."
The 22 year-old says she is settling into life as a Melburnian after being recruited by the Renegades for the inaugural Women's Big Bash League.
She debuted internationally for South Africa at just 15 years old and has since set records in the country in wicket-taking and at the crease.
But van Niekerk says women's cricket in Australia is a different experience.
"They're leaders in developing women's cricket and getting the brand out there. I think we're still at that beginning stage where we're trying to get girls just to play cricket and get into cricket."
After starting last weekend, the competition promises a standard of women's cricket not seen since the World Cup.
Melbourne Renegades chief executive Stuart Coventry says the elite level of the comeptition has female players from across the globe wanting to sign up.
"It's the best talent in the world. Most of the best female cricketers have put their hand up, wanting to play in the Women's Big Bash, because it's probably the best competition in T20 at the moment."
T20, or Twenty-20, is a short form of cricket.
Crowd numbers for the opening matches of the women's series were underwhelming.
But Cricket Australia's Mike McKenna says the Women's Big Bash is seen as the next big step in the evolution of women's cricket.
"The crowds have not been something we wanted to measure. We certainly haven't set any KPIs* for the teams. And there's no expectations around crowds. The whole purpose of the Women's Big Bash League is to inspire girls to play cricket."
Dane van Niekerk says playing cricket professionally is now a real option for women.
"The life I'm living now, seeing the world and playing cricket, that's all I want, just people to look up and say, 'There's actually a future in cricket.'"
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