Australia’s Women’s Cricket stars start celebrating with family and friends

There were smiles and emotional embraces as the Australian Women’s Cricket team touched down on home soil on Tuesday afternoon after their Mighty World Cup final win against England in New Zealand at the weekend.

The team arrived at Melbourne Airport on a charter flight from Christchurch around 1.30pm and walked out of the arrivals gate to a small crowd of cameras and Reporters just before 2pm, Trophy in hand.

All-rounder Grace Harris was the first cricketer to walk through the arrival Gates, with teammate Alana King melting into the arms of parents Leroy and Sharon in the hall shortly after.

Meanwhile, a smiling Megan Schutt had her hands full, pushing her luggage trolley with one hand and a pram with daughter Rylee with the other.

Captain Meg Lanning was among the last to emerge from the gate, carrying the coveted World Cup Trophy on her luggage trolley and being cheered on by her teammates.

Lanning, alongside teammates Alyssa Healy, Rachael Haynes and Ellyse Perry, has been at the core of the team’s success on the world stage over the past five years, which culminated in the return of the global 50-over crown in Christchurch on Sunday.

“We had a pretty clear goal of what we wanted to achieve over in New Zealand and to do that in the way that we did it’s really special,” Lanning told Reporters.

“There was certainly a lot of Celebrations going on and sort of taking it all in. We were pretty lucky to be able to stay at the ground for a fair bit and just sort of go through what we’ve achieved and what it all looked like. There’s certainly a couple of nights we’ll certainly remember. ”