Cathryn Lorraine Fitzpatrick (born 4 March 1968) is an Australian former

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er. She was recognised as the world's

fastest Fastest is a model-based testing tool that works with specifications written in the Z notation. The tool implements the Test Template Framework (TTF) proposed by Phil Stocks and David Carrington in . Usage Fastest presents a command-line user ...

female bowler throughout her career and became the first woman to take 100

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

wickets. She appeared in 13

Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

, 109 One Day Internationals and two Twenty20 Internationals for

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

between 1991 and 2007. She played domestic cricket for Victoria. In 2019, Fitzpatrick was inducted into both the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame and the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.

Career summary

While juggling her full-time job as a waste collector and later a postwoman, Fitzpatrick represented

in cricket on 124 occasions. She made her international debut in 1991 and went on to play 13

, taking 60 wickets (the second-most by an Australian woman, only behind

Betty Wilson Betty Rebecca Wilson (21 November 1921 – 22 January 2010) was considered one of the greatest woman cricketers of all time. She represented Australia in Women's Test cricket between 1947–48 and 1957–58. Wilson batted right-handed, and was ...

) at an average of 19.11. Fitzpatrick also played 109 One Day Internationals, taking 180 wickets (the most by any woman until surpassed by

Jhulan Goswami Jhulan Nishit Goswami (born 25 November 1982) is an Indian cricketer. She plays as a right-arm medium fast bowler and right-handed batter. She is one of the fastest (female) bowler of all times and considered one of the greatest bowlers to ...

in May 2017) at an average of 16.79. She was a member of the Australian team that won the Women's Cricket World Cup in

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

and

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

. On 25 February 2006, Fitzpatrick became the oldest woman to take a

five-wicket haul In cricket, a five-wicket haul (also known as a "five–for" or "fifer") occurs when a bowler takes five or more wickets in a single innings. This is regarded by critics as a notable achievement, equivalent to a century from a batsman. Takin ...

in ODI history, at the age of 37 years and 358 days. In March 2007, she announced her retirement from international cricket and also brought her domestic career with Victoria to an end after taking 148 wickets in 103 WNCL matches. From May 2012 to March 2015, Fitzpatrick served as head coach of the Australian women's team, overseeing three successful world championship campaigns. In 2019, Fitzpatrick was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame. Later that year, she was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame.

Bowling speed

Due to limitations of available technological resources in her playing tenure, Fitzpatrick's top and average speeds are estimates rather than precise figures. Thorough eye-witness testimony agrees she was the world's fastest female bowler during her prime years, while sporadic measurements indicated her quickest delivery was at least 125 km/h. This evaluation holds up both impressively and credibly compared to modern women's cricket which is characterised by its increased professional standards—as of 2019, the fastest current bowlers are South Africa's

Shabnim Ismail Shabnim Ismail (born 5 October 1988) is a South African cricketer who made her debut for the national women's team in January 2007. A right-arm fast bowler, Ismail is South Africa's all-time leading wicket-taker in both the One Day Internatio ...

and New Zealand's

Lea Tahuhu Lea-Marie Maureen Tahuhu (born 23 September 1990) is a New Zealand cricketer who plays as a right-arm fast bowler. She made her international debut for the New Zealand women's cricket team in June 2011. Career In December 2017, she was named ...

, who have been officially recorded at speeds of 128 km/h and 126 km/h respectively.

Honours

Team

*2x Women's Cricket World Cup champion:

*2x Women's National Cricket League champion: 2002–03, 2004–05

Individual

* Belinda Clark Award winner: 2004

References

Notes

External links

* *
World's fastest bowler retires
Fox Sports, 27 March 2007
Fitzpatrick retires after 16-year career

Cricinfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...

, 27 March 2007
Cathryn Fitzpatrick
at

southernstars.org.au The Australian women's national cricket team (formerly also known as the Southern Stars) represent Australia in international women's cricket. Currently captained by Meg Lanning and coached by Shelley Nitschke, they are the top team in all worl ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fitzpatrick, Cathryn 1968 births Australia women One Day International cricketers Australia women Test cricketers Australia women Twenty20 International cricketers Australian cricket coaches Living people Cricketers from Melbourne Victoria women cricketers Australian Cricket Hall of Fame inductees Female cricket coaches