Australia's women get the chance to shine on their own stage

MELBOURNE, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Despite their dominance on the world stage, Australia's women cricketers have long toiled in the shadow of the national men's team but with the T20 World Cup kicking off on home soil this week they will finally have the limelight all to themselves.

Meg Lanning's side are bidding for a fifth trophy in six editions of the biennial event, their reign only briefly interrupted by West Indies in 2016 when they finished second.

With the men's team touring South Africa for a limited overs series with little at stake, Australia's women will be able to enjoy the crowds and adulation during the home summer.

But while Lanning, all-rounder Ellyse Perry and wicketkeeper-batswoman Alyssa Healy have become household names over the years, casual fans, while aware of Australia's success, might struggle to name any of their team mates.

Australia has hosted just one women's global tournament in the last three decades and therefore the team's greatest triumphs have come overseas, with matches often taking place at unsociable hours back home.

Media coverage has typically flared with each piece of silverware won, before fading again.

Sustained investments are shifting the paradigm, however, with women's cricket growing in profile with the development of fully-fledged professional leagues.

The Women's Big Bash League, the domestic T20 tournament, was separated from the men's last year to give each their own airtime.

The Women's T20 World Cup is also standing apart from the men's event, which starts in October, the first time they have been separated when staged in one host nation in the same year.

It all adds up to what could be a watershed moment for women's cricket in Australia, particularly if the hosts reach the final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on March 8 -- International Women's Day.

"In terms of progress and development, having our own window for events and owning them outright is absolutely brilliant," all-rounder Perry told Reuters.

"It makes it the main spectacle, obviously."

Former England captain Charlotte Edwards had described the 29-year-old as the greatest player the women's game will ever see and victory at home would be a crowning achievement for Perry, who has featured in all four of her team's T20 World Cup wins.

As a 19-year-old she bowled the last delivery of the 2010 T20 World Cup in Barbados, the former soccer international sticking out a foot to block a fierce straight drive by New Zealand's Sophie Devine to save a boundary that would have brought a tiebreaking Super Over.

With opener Healy, the ICC T20 and ODI Player of the Year in 2019, and master blaster Lanning, Australia bring serious firepower.

With variation in their attack and one of the world's quickest bowlers in 21-year-old Tayla Vlaeminck, they enter the World Cup as deserved favourites despite a couple of wake-up call defeats in the leadup tri-series against England and India.

Needing to perform on the biggest stage in front of expectant home fans, nerves may be their biggest opponents.

"There will be stages where every player feels pressure," said vice-captain Rachael Haynes.

"No doubt there will be some nerves but I’m confident our team will come through."

(Editing by Peter Rutherford)